Key, one in all Flintoff’s closest pals 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 supplied an unpaid position in England’s white-ball set-up throughout final 12 months’s collection towards New Zealand, throughout which period the extent of his accidents turned 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 vital involvement with the squad but – as Jos Buttler’s males search to defend the title that they gained in Australia two years in the past.
“With out query, I feel he would be an excellent head coach,” Key advised the newspaper. “Who is aware of the place he results in the longer term. He will likely be a worthy candidate going ahead. When that point comes and whoever is on this job, and it is perhaps outdoors of my time, they would 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 taking part in profession, which was lower brief 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 frontrunner like [Ben] Stokes,” Key mentioned. “Simply having somebody who is aware of what it’s prefer to wrestle and are available out the opposite finish is so relatable to these gamers. After they have had a foul day he can clarify it. He’s a kind of individuals when he talks to you he’s working you out.
“He has excessive emotional intelligence so he understands while you want a little bit of an arm round your shoulder or blunt honesty. These are the abilities that make an awesome chief. Management is about making the individuals round you’re feeling higher and he’s somebody who’s like that. He has quite a bit to supply.”
Flintoff’s England position will prolong into the four-match T20I collection towards Pakistan that precedes the T20 World Cup – whereupon the squad’s return to St Lucia will revive reminiscences 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 distinguished latest gamers, corresponding to Moeen Ali and Eoin Morgan, might be equally fast-tracked again into the skilled set-up after their taking part in days.
“Should you might design the proper head coach growth programme, Flintoff is occurring a superb journey,” he mentioned. “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, figuring out the way you assemble a squad and get all of them taking part in collectively rapidly.
“That’s related expertise way more than sitting on a Zoom name listening to somebody inform you what to do. Moeen Ali I feel will likely be an excellent coach, there are such a lot of individuals. They’ve these expertise and we need to attempt to create experiences the place they’ll actually study.”
