Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Cricketer, one of the best of his generation, part of the England team that won the Ashes in 2005; awarded an MBE and BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
On the island
Eight records
I Just Can't Help Believin'Favourite
I got put in charge of Christmas decorations and I think on the Christmas Eve I'd still not finish putting my decorations.
I never really got a chance to mourn her and then went to the funeral and they played [Somewhere] Over the Rainbow.
I used to put Rocket Man on by Elton John and it became our anthem of that summer.
Naked I started dancing and swinging my towel round my head. And one by one the team started getting up and dancing.
The house had one CD, it was Jack Johnson. And we used to play it over and over.
I got the microphone and ended up singing the first dance to my wife.
My ring entrance was Roll With It by Oasis. I was trying to look hard but I'm not sure I was kidding anyone.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:40Does that stubbornness and ruthlessness surprise you about yourself? Do you wonder where it came from?
Yeah, sometimes it's almost like um a different person. And no matter what I did as a cricketer, or probably in in life now, with the exception of my family, he's never quite good enough. I always want to do better.
Presenter asks
14:15What was your state of mind when you embarked on the [2005 Ashes] series?
I didn't prepare myself. For how big it was. I remember turning up to Wards for the first test match and. It was like making my debut all over again. And I'm terrible at debuts. All my debuts have gone really bad. And this was no exception. And I sat back down in the dressing room afterwards and thought, This is not right So I had a week off, we went down to Devon with the family. You know, I turned up at the next Test match at Birmingham. Thinking, you know what, I'm just gonna enjoy myself. I've lived to play in this series since I can remember.
Presenter asks
17:59How did you deal with that defeat [the 2006-07 Ashes loss]?
Not great. If you said to like a young lad or a professional, you're gonna get the chance to captain your country, you'd jump at the chance and I did. You know, when I was playing well, it wasn't that bad a job because if I felt if something needed doing, I'd do it myself. But then I started getting injured and my form started dipping and I couldn't do the things on the field I wanted and also the captaincy was like starting to weigh quite heavy on my shoulders. I used to go back to my room and I I used to hide away from things and at times I probably drank a little bit too much, just trying to change the way in which I feel. So you have a few drinks and then it's fine but then the next day you feel absolutely terrible.
The keepsakes
The book
Harper Lee
It's a book I did for GCSE English at school and I actually loved it
Presenter asks
18:37Was there a time when the drinking became something you really had to address?
It's not so much the drinking, it's actually the reasons why you're drinking, I think it's the problem. We celebrated in 2005, and that was fantastic. We're celebrating something we'd done well. But then when you're drinking because you're trying to get away from something, I think that's when you gotta have a look at it and think, you know what, that's not right. Looking back, I did a documentary for the BBC about depression in sport. I went round speaking to Steve Harmison, Ricky Hatton, Vinnie Jones, and I started to realize and identify some of the things which they went through through my career and through my life. And then that's one of the reasons now which I I probably stopped drinking is the fact that, you know, I am prone to suffer from depression. Drinking does not help that one bit. No, I don't I don't touch it now.
Presenter asks
26:33Given that physical injuries ended your cricket career, what possessed you to take up heavyweight boxing?
That is bravado. I was doing the the depression documentary and I met Barry McGuigan and I interviewed him and he was on the pads and I said, Can I just hit the pads so I can tell my mates like I've hit the pads with you holding them and he says yeah So I hit him, he says, You've got a good right hand and so thanks Barry And then I saw him a few weeks later and then said oh about this fight I'm gonna have joking and it escalated and it escalated and I realized pretty quick that I wasn't cut out for boxing'cause I don't like punching people. Just to punch someone who you don't know is quite a bizarre thing.
“I used to differentiate the two of them, especially when I went out on the field or go out to perform, then that was very much Fred. You know, it was this front, this big axe. But then when I go home, I'm very different. I'm very quiet, just close the door.”
“Yes. Yeah, but my desire to win, this is where competition can sometimes bring out the worst in me even as a young lad. I sat there for forty five minutes scratching my head, pretending it was my move, and his little flag dropped and he'd lost.”
“I made myself sick. If I ate something I shouldn't, I felt I shouldn't have had, or been out, I made myself sick. Well, then that started creeping in more and more and more. And then that happened for a while.”
“And we had this question about the last time you cried, and I'm not really a crier. And I came up with some absolute nonsense answer, but it was only probably two hours previous, on the train back, on my own, from Glasgow. thinking it's it's over, that that's it.”
“I don't like punching people. Just to punch someone who you don't know is quite a bizarre thing.”
“I'm more comfortable in my own skin now than I ever have been. It's been a job to get there.”