'With His Guidance, Highest Potential Players Will Thrive': Ex-ENG Captain Lauds Flintoff's New Role as England Lions Head Coach

The former England captain, Michael Atherton believes that the appointment of the legendary all-rounder, Andrew Flintoff as the Head Coach of the England Lions team could be an ‘inspiring’ one as he could help bring out the talents of the best talents the cricketing nation has to offer.

Atherton in a segment for SkySports, opened up on his thoughts regarding Flintoff’s appointment for the role. He began by recalling the inspiring talk the former all-rounder had given while handing out the cap to the debutant Josh Hull ahead of the third Test against Sri Lanka at the Oval.

READ MORE: Andrew Flintoff Appointed As England Lions Head Coach

“Yesterday we saw him give Josh Hull his cap. The audio is not very good but I wish we could because he gave a wonderful speech about the value of the cap the importance of playing Test cricket and what it means to him. And Joshua’s family were there. His mum was moved to tears yesterday,” he shared.

“It was a wonderful speech that Freddie gave and now they’ve appointed him to the men’s England Lions role, which sounds like it’s for a year, the tours of South Africa before Christmas, Australia after Christmas and then India and Zimbabwe in the summer,” he added.

Atherton believes that the role that Flintoff now holds could be a crucial one for England Cricket in years to come as he believes that this could determine the talents that come out from the youth setup for the future.

“So Freddie’s back fully, really in the fold. There he was a couple of minutes ago, out in the middle meeting for the bowlers. He’s taken a coaching role with the Northern Superchargers this summer, but this is a much more significant role I think because one of the quotes that comes with the ECB press release says the England Lions programme is a cornerstone of our cricketing structure, playing a critical role in nurturing the next generation of talent,” Atherton commented.

“With Andrew’s guidance, the highest potential players will continue to develop, thrive and take their game to new levels. I’m confident his influence will resonate across English cricket and help drive the game forward,” he added.

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The former captain also drew a comparison between Flintoff and his present-day counterpart in Ben Stokes as he believes that both men having encountered their fair share of incidents off-field would result in developing more maturity and empathy which could be the right ingredients to coach the younger group of players.

“So it’s quite a significant appointment and a good one I think. I think when people have gone through the kind of problems that Freddie has gone through post theTop Gear crash, then I think almost like Ben Stokes after the Bristol incident, you become a very rounded and empathetic character and I think he’ll be an inspirational choice for some of these young cricketers,” he concluded.