Flintoff - fan of Indian curry, rugby, Sachin and Sourav

Kolkata, January 14: He is a great fan of Indian curry, loves his pet 'Boxers' and unwinds by watching rugby and soccer when not playing cricket.

Nicknamed 'Fred', England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is as lavish in praising his opponents off the field as he is ruthless with his rivals on the ground.

"Sachin (Tendulkar) and Sourav (Ganguly) are great players. It will be a big test for our bowlers to bowl to them in Indian condition. They simply can't afford to bowl bad deliveries," he admitted unabashedly.

Having grabbed media attention for his tiff with Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on the third day of the Mohali test last month, the 6'4" gangling medium pacer today dismissed it as an 'incident without malice'.

"Sourav is a fine player. I was only trying to get him out," he said during a tete-a-tete with newspersons here.

Describing Ganguly as a friend since the time they played together for English county team Lancashire, he said "When you play against somebody you konw, there is some extra competition as you try to do well against each other."

Flintoff, who emerged man of the match in the Bangalore test for his fine bowling performance (4/50), admitted that he was surprised with the verdict as he thought that the honours would go to batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar who struck a decent 90.