Freddie FlintoffAn English former cricketer and TV presenter. walks out onto a huge pitch. "When I look back on my life," he says, "I think, 'If I didn't have cricket, what would I have done? Who would I be?'... But the fact is, you've got to be lucky or privilegedHaving advantages or special rights that others do not have. to play... It shouldn't be like that."

This is the opening of the first series of Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams, which aired in 2022. Launched in July 2022, it showed him returning to his home town, PrestonA city in Lancashire in the north of England. . His aim was to build a cricket team out of local teenagers.

Most had never played cricket, because most state schoolsUntil the 1870 Elementary Education Act, all schools in England and Wales were charitable or privately funded. do not teach it. Some of the teenagers had ADHDAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a mental health condition that can cause above-normal levels of energetic and impulsive behaviours. or autismA condition characterised by difficulty in social interaction and communication. According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 160 children has an autism disorder.. But soon, they had a decent team.

Flintoff had another aim. He wanted to show that being in a cricket team could help people to reach their goals.

In the second series, which finished this weekend, Flintoff took the team on tour to IndiaA country in South Asia. It has the second-largest population in the world, with a population of 1.4 billion. .

In India the players had to deal with a very different country. Their eyes were opened to people who had very little. Afterwards they spoke of how much their lives had changed. Flintoff himself was recovering from a bad injury.

Josh, who is autistic, has started his own business. Adnan, a refugeePeople who are forced from their countries because war or persecution. from AfghanistanA mountainous Asian country, slightly larger than France, whose neighbours include Pakistan, Iran and China., is now well on his way to becoming a professional cricketer. Eli, who left school without any GCSEsNational exams taken by 15 and 16-year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. , has trained to be a sports coach. Ben is becoming a teacher after taking an English class for Indian orphansPeople whose parents have died. .

Can we all learn resilience?

Yes! The more you have to face difficult situations, the more you will be able to cope with them.

No! It requires a mental toughness which you either have or do not have.