Freddie Flintoff says the bullying he suffered for playing cricket felt worse than what Billy Elliot went through for taking up ballet.
The former England all-rounder added more should be done to encourage kids from all walks of life to play the game.
Comparing himself with fictional working class lad Billy who has to battle to follow his dream, Freddie said: “At both the schools I went to, cricket was just not on the radar.
“I got so much stick for playing cricket, bullied even, it was almost like Billy Elliot – except he had it easier being a ballet dancer.”
He took up a TV boxing challenge in 2012 to tackle his frustration at having been bullied but not responding. He said previously: “I had a very rough time at school. I wanted to play cricket and I frequently got knocked around because of it.
“I wanted to retaliate but I couldn’t make myself.
“So now I want to put that side of my life to bed a little bit.”
Freddie, 44, who went to state schools, has returned to his home city of Preston, Lancs, for a new documentary series showing him starting a cricket team of kids who have never played the game before.
At the start, most of them say it is “boring”, “too slow” and “posh”. Freddie said: “When you look at the England team, when we started this process a year ago, it was 60/40 public school to state school kids. But only 7% of kids go to private school. That makes it elitist.”
Of the England team picked for the Test match against New Zealand that ended yesterday, there was a 50/50 split between state and public school.
Freddie, who was encouraged to play the game by his cricket-mad dad, struggled to fit in during the early years.
He told Radio Times : “I had my bat I bought for £21.50 and my Auntie Joan bought my pads from Hamleys toy shop.
“You’re playing against all these private school kids who’ve got all the gear. I took this weird pleasure in beating them.”
The Ashes hero, who also played for Lancashire, says the new show is a “passion project” for which he is taking no fee. He added: “When I look back on my life, I think that if I didn’t have cricket, what would I have done? Who would I be?
“I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time.”
TV presenter Freddie has put in £25,000 of his own cash and has pledged another £25,000 towards a clubhouse revamp.
One of the boys who turns up is Adnan, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan. Freddie said: “He is hitting sixes and the lads are hugging him and you think, ‘This is the power of sport. This is what cricket can do’.”
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams starts on Tuesday July 5 at 8pm on BBC1.
