By Martin Gough

Andrew Flintoff has long been hailed the new Ian Botham and on Wednesday he surpassed the mighty all-rounder's career total for one-day international sixes.

Flintoff has cleared the boundary 45 times in 65 matches, Botham hit 44 sixes in 116 matches.

But how does Freddie Flintoff compare to Beefy Botham, as a player and a folk hero? BBC Sport performs some in-depth analysis.

Batting

Botham was cheeky, taking on fast bowlers that many feared with his trademark hook to produce some of the most memorable batting performances in English Test history.

In the one-day game he was often used as a pinch-hitter at the top of the order, with very mixed results.

Flintoff is fearless, looking to hit the cover off the ball whoever the bowler is, but he has displayed a new-found maturity in the last year, and grown more consistent as a result.

His trademark is the orthodox drive. What marks him out from other batsmen is the sheer power with which he executes the shot.

Bowling

Flintoff has yet to face Australia in Test cricket

Having remodelled his action after injury in 2001, Flintoff has lost little of his pace or aggression, but he tends to look to tempt batsmen into giving away their wickets.

His success so far has come largely in the one-day game, an average of 24.46 contrasting with a so-far mediocre Test mark of 49.95.

Botham's haul of 383 Test wickets is 58 more than his nearest English rival, contemporary Bob Willis.

For much of his 102-Test career he was used as an out-and-out strike bowler, whereas Flintoff tends to act as back-up.

Tabloid headlines

The title of Botham's autobiography, Don't Tell Kath, was pretty ironic because his long-suffering wife found out about most of his nocturnal activities via the front pages.

Flintoff's fiancee Rachel looks pretty safe by comparison, and her mother is unlikely to be threatened with an all-expenses-paid trip to Pakistan, as Kath's was in 1984.

Botham's fondness for a party was shared by many of his team-mates, although he was the only one to gain a suspension for smoking cannabis.

Upset by tabloid revelations of a "lager and hamburger lifestyle" three years ago, Flintoff answered with his bat before declaring "Not bad for a fat lad".

Charity walking

Botham has been on the road since 1986

Since strolling from Land's End to John O'Groats in aid of Leukemia research in 1986, Botham has spent much of his time as an ex-cricketer doing his bit for charity.

He came out of self-enforced walking retirement just last month to raise over �300,000 for a Welsh children's hospital.

Also last month, Flintoff joined former England all-rounder Adam Hollioake in a single stage of his marathon trek from John O'Groats to Tangiers.

Unfortunately he took boxer dogs Freddie and Arnold along for the exercise, and one of them bit the Surrey skipper's toe.

Aussie-bashing

Botham saved his best for England's arch-rivals - 148 of his Test victims were Australians and his bowling average against them was lower than his career overall.

Two of his finest batting performances came in a single Ashes series, his famous 149 at Headingley in 1981 coming hot on the heals of a 102-ball 118 at Old Trafford.

Flintoff has appeared in just two one-day internationals against the World Champions, scoring 61 runs and taking a single wicket.

He was still recovering from back trouble when Steve Waugh's side visited in 2001, and a slow recovery from hernia surgery kept him out of action for much of last winter.

Verdict

Both men are firm fan favourites because of their sheer exuberance and the fact that they make things happen with both bat and ball.

Flintoff's character stands out from an England side made up of identikit cricketers, who are all "looking forward to doing a job, if selected".

Botham faced more competition to stand out from a crowd of characters including Gower, Gatting and Lamb.

But it was his ability to bring out the best of his game against the toughest opponents that marked him out.

Until Flintoff replicates his feats from the summer series against South Africa, and his recent big-batting, against Australia, there is still no comparison.