When I played in the Indian Premier League, when I played that stupid Allen Stanford game in 2008 (West Indies beat England to take the £12.4million prize), I realised something central about my relationship with cricket, about getting the best out of myself.  I don’t play for money.  I’m not sure I even can play just for money.  Money is great, I can’t lie about that. 

But when I played for Chennai in the IPL in 2009, I couldn’t name everyone in my own team and coaching staff.  I remember standing in the middle of the field, in a yellow kit, and my body was sore and hurting, as usual, but I just couldn’t put everything on the line for Chennai.  It’s not a reflection on them.  It’s simply that the team didn’t mean so much to me. 

The IPL?  Nah.  I’d always reckoned I could turn on adrenaline.  But I can see now that I couldn’t.  There had to be an emotional attachment to what I was doing.  And it had to matter, which is why the one constant was always my county, Lancashire. 

Andrew Flintoff takes a break whilst playing for Chennai Super Kings in the 2009 Indian Premier League

Flintoff launches himself into the air in celebration having taken a wicket for his Lancashire county side

Flintoff says 'I couldn’t name everyone in my own team and coaching staff,' during his spell for Chennai

Even for England, if I went in to bat against Zimbabwe with 400 already on the board, I’d be 21 telling myself, ‘Come on, get up for it.’  But something deeper would say, ‘No, this is pointless.’  Same with being a mercenary.  I just couldn’t get into it. 

Ambition is a funny thing.  In cricket, as in many professions, it tends to take you on a journey away from where you started.  That’s fine, maybe inevitable.  But no one ever tells you that the biggest days aren’t always the best days.  And the richest prizes aren’t the ones you remember. 

I won some winners’ medals with Lancashire — a NatWest trophy and a couple of Sunday Leagues.  But I desperately wanted to win the County Championship and also to win at Lord’s with them one more time.  Because those were the best days.  And I could never have had too many with Lancashire.  That’s not nostalgia, just the truth. 

Flintoff, in action in the 2009 IPL, claims 'I don’t play for money.  I’m not sure I even can play just for money.' 

The former England all-rounder says his Lancashire days were his best. ' That’s not nostalgia, just the truth.'