Andrew Flintoff to apply for England’s coach next year
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Andrew Flintoff has confirmed that he will apply to replace current England coach Trevor Bayliss after UK Ashes series in 2019. Recently Bayliss had announced that he will step down from his duties in 2019 which will give the legendary all-rounder a chance to be back in English cricket.
One of English cricket's most iconic figures, Flintoff was always a correct and powerful batsman, to go with his ability to make the batsmen dance to his tunes through his "hit-the-deck-hard" bowling. He was even seen by many as his generation's Ian Botham for single-handedly helping England win the 2005 Ashes - pretty similar to the way Botham did in 1981. While the world has last seen Flintoff in action in 2009, it appears the enigmatic all-rounder is all set to make a second-coming to the game.Â
Speaking on his podcast, Savage and The Ping Pong Guy, Flintoff said, “I’m talking with my heart, yes (I’ll apply), I want to do it one day … if they want me to do it, I’ll do it. We spoke about it and I was serious, but I had to think if I’d be better than the person they’re choosing.”
However, this is not the first time that Flintoff will be applying for the position of England’s coach as he had done so earlier when Peter Moores was selected in 2014.Â
“I knew I wouldn’t be better than Peter Moores, so after a half an hour conversation I withdrew, but also said if Moores doesn’t get it, put me back in the hat. I thought you can bang on about it and put players down, or actually do something about it, so I thought that I would have a crack at this, I wrote an email, three weeks past and no reply. I found out the ECB thought it wasn’t me despite me having one email all my life.”
More often than not, England players suffer mental health issue and players like Alan Mullally, Marcus Trescothick, and Monty Panesar are some of the names that come to the mind straightaway. Flintoff, who has been a strong advocate for mental health since retiring from international cricket in 2009, said that he would emphasise the mental side of the game rather than a heavy focus on skills.
"A coach’s job now is to get players feeling the best they can be to perform, as a coach or mentor, that’d be my greatest asset," he said.
"When I look back now, I should’ve spent more time on my head, I spent all the time in the gym and
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