Key, one among Flintoff’s closest mates within the sport, was instrumental in his return to the general public eye after he suffered horrific facial accidents whereas filming an episode of High Gear in December 2022.
Flintoff was provided an unpaid function in England’s white-ball set-up throughout final 12 months’s collection towards New Zealand, throughout which period the extent of his accidents grew to become obvious, and he went on to be a mentor for the England Lions set-up previous to his unveiling as the brand new head coach of Northern Superchargers for this 12 months’s Hundred.
Talking to The Telegraph, Key confirmed that Flintoff has additionally been added to England’s back-room employees for his or her T20 World Cup marketing campaign within the Caribbean in June – his most important involvement with the squad but – as Jos Buttler’s males search to defend the title that they received in Australia two years in the past.
“With out query, I feel he can be a superb head coach,” Key informed the newspaper. “Who is aware of the place he results in the longer term. He might be a worthy candidate going ahead. When that point comes and whoever is on this job, and it may be exterior of my time, they might be silly not to have a look at him.”
In his opinion, Flintoff’s struggles – each since his accident and within the wake of his personal enjoying profession, which was lower quick by a knee harm – have armed him with an “emotional intelligence” that gamers worth when coping with the pressures of high-level sport.
“Flintoff is a pacesetter like [Ben] Stokes,” Key stated. “Simply having somebody who is aware of what it’s wish to battle and are available out the opposite finish is so relatable to these gamers. After they have had a nasty day he can clarify it. He’s a kind of folks when he talks to you he’s working you out.
“He has excessive emotional intelligence so he understands whenever you want a little bit of an arm round your shoulder or blunt honesty. These are the talents that make an excellent chief. Management is about making the folks round you’re feeling higher and he’s somebody who’s like that. He has rather a lot to supply.”
Flintoff’s England function will prolong into the ODI collection towards Pakistan that precedes the T20 World Cup – whereupon the squad’s return to St Lucia will revive recollections of the notorious Pedalo incident that got here to characterise England’s ill-starred marketing campaign on the 2007 50-over World Cup.
However even that episode, in Key’s opinion, counts as priceless expertise as Flintoff strikes additional into his teaching profession, and he hopes that different outstanding latest gamers, reminiscent of Moeen Ali and Eoin Morgan, may be equally fast-tracked again into the skilled set-up after their enjoying days.
“In the event you may design the right head coach growth programme, Flintoff is happening a superb journey,” he stated. “He began off as a mentor serving to out, then a little bit of Lions cricket, the under-19s and he’s going to be a head coach of a group with a draft, understanding the way you assemble a squad and get all of them enjoying collectively shortly.
“That’s related expertise far more than sitting on a Zoom name listening to somebody let you know what to do. Moeen Ali I feel might be a superb coach, there are such a lot of folks. They’ve these expertise and we need to attempt to create experiences the place they’ll actually be taught.”
