Daniel Brigham explores the rivalry between two of England cricket’s most important figures – Andrew Flintoff and Duncan Fletcher – one that, while not out there for the public to dissect and discuss, was ever-present, bubbling under the surface.

First published in 2015.

First published in 2015

This is not a tale of fall-outs, of feuds or of punch-ups in Adelaide car parks. There are no threats of physical beatings, no broken f***en arms.

Instead this is a story of two of English cricket’s most important figures. A coach and a talisman; an enigma, a raconteur. Together they oversaw England’s greatest high and worst comedown. Together, Duncan Fletcher and Andrew Flintoff redefined cricket in England, one quietly, shrewdly; one loudly, brutally.

There’s was a brooding, slow-burner of a rivalry; that age-old conflict between men of reason and men of instinct. It’s there in the pages of their autobiographies. “As far as Duncan and I are concerned,” wrote Flintoff, “it was a case of two people who didn’t get on being thrown together for eight months of the year.” In 2013, this correspondent asked Flintoff whether he’d ever seen Fletcher smile: “You’re asking the wrong bloke here! He smiled in India, although it might have been wind, when we beat India at Mumbai [in 2006]. He jumped into my arms but he probably got the wrong bloke. I never really spoke about him but you have to give him credit for what he did. I think it was led by Michael Vaughan but Duncan played his part.”

It may have ended badly for Fletcher but, like Flintoff, ultimately he will always be remembered for 2005. They’ll always have the celebrations at The Oval, when individuals were forgotten in the glow of team. That evening, with the urn thrillingly reclaimed, Fletcher went to bed at 10.30pm; Flintoff was still up at 8am when he spotted Mike Gatting coming down for breakfast and joined him, gin and tonic in hand, eyes reddened.

In that moment of their greatest triumph, Fletcher, that great man of reason, and Flintoff, that great man of instinct, both did it their ways. It was ever beautifully thus.