"Shop had to close door, call police" - England legend recalls crazy shopping mall experience from first India tour

Former England pacer Stuart Broad narrated an incident involving him and former all-rounder Andrew Flintoff in India in 2008. The 39-year-old spoke about how the latter had forgotten his pair of flip-flops and hence had to go to a shopping mall to buy one. Broad accompanied him to the mall to purchase the flip-flops.

The former England pacer, who was on his first tour to India, spoke about how a large crowd had gathered outside the shop where he and Flintoff had gone to buy the footwear:

"I toured in 2008 for a one-day tour. I was quite new into the side. We had landed, and Andrew Flintoff had forgotten his flip-flops. He said I need to go to the shopping mall, anyone want to come? So, I was like, 'I'll come' I have never been to India before, maybe once in a bowling camp."

"And we (Broad and Flintoff) went into a shopping mall. I think it was a Puma shop, he was looking at the flip-flops away from the door and I turned around and the whole shop door and front was full of people, like completely covered. There was no way of us getting out. I was like, 'Fred, quite a big crowd gathering out here.'"

"The shop had to close the door, call the police, like shut the front of the door off and take Fred and I, like hopped in drag holding onto his coattails type thing out the back and away," Broad told Jos Buttler on the "For the Love of Cricket" podcast.

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Stuart Broad played his final Test match against Australia at The Oval in 2023 and finished his career with 604 Test wickets in 167 matches at an average of 27.68.