Andrew Flintoff will not be part of England’s coaching staff for the white-ball series against Australia next month, with stand-in head coach Marcus Trescothick being given the opportunity to shape his own backroom team.
Flintoff, who played a starring role in England’s 2005 Ashes series victory, has worked with the national white-ball teams for the last year. He was part of the tour to West Indies last year and also went to the T20 World Cup in June as an assistant coach.
But he will not work with England during the two series against Australia – three Twenty20 internationals and five one-day internationals – as he moves on to a new stage in his coaching career.
The 46-year-old England legend has been working on a short-term consultancy basis with the national team without a full-time contract.
In this season’s Hundred, Flintoff coached Northern Superchargers, his first head coach position in the professional game. Superchargers won five games and lost two, narrowly missing out on reaching the play-off stages in an encouraging start to his coaching career.
Jos Buttler, who will continue as England white-ball captain after the sacking of Matthew Mott, is not believed to have gelled particularly with Flintoff during the T20 World Cup in June.
Buttler has a strong rapport with Trescothick, with the two playing together at Somerset when he was breaking into the professional game. Buttler has often worked on his batting with Trescothick in recent years.
Speaking after England closed the second day of the Test against Sri Lanka on 259 for six, a lead of 23 runs, Trescothick did not rule out taking on the head coach’s role full-time.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity, for sure,” he said. “I’m really excited about doing the job. We’ll work it out a little bit more from there.
“It’s not something I ever thought about before, until I got this opportunity now. I’m not necessarily thinking any further ahead than the end of the Australia series. I’ve been very much focussed on the job we’re doing here.”
Trescothick is England’s assistant coach in Test cricket. He will continue to fulfil his normal role with the squad throughout the first two Tests against Sri Lanka. He will then leave the Test squad early in the final Test, at The Oval, before the Twenty20 series against Australia begins on September 11 – just one day after the fifth day of the third Test.
“I’m here for a period of time, then get ready for the white-ball series,” he said. “It’s just trying to have various conversations behind the scenes with coaches and staff and people like that, making sure we get it right.”
Flintoff suffered a serious car crash while filming Top Gear in December 2022.
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Last summer, he started to scout for England and worked with age-group sides before beginning to work as a consultant for the white-ball national team in September.
At this early stage of his coaching career, Flintoff, 46, is not considered a candidate for the role of white-ball head coach, which is vacant following the departure of Mott. But his involvement in the Hundred has confirmed his coaching ambitions.
“Cricket has given me so much,” Flintoff said recently. “It’s all I ever wanted to do as a kid and I got the opportunity to live my dream.
“I feel really lucky to be back here and I want the lads to cherish playing. When you finish playing, you look back and it passes so quickly, but you just take time when you’re out there, just to have a look around and take it in and live in the moment.
“And that’s what I’m doing these days. It’s living in the moment and enjoying it. And that’s something I want the players to do, and the teams that play under me to do as well.”
Trescothick backed Jamie Smith, who top scored with an unbeaten 72 at Old Trafford, for a place in the white-ball squads later this summer. Smith played two one-day internationals against Ireland last summer, but his outstanding Test form this summer is likely to earn him selection for the white-ball squads when he is available.
“We’ve seen enough of him playing for Surrey in the T20 or other competitions,” Trescothick said. “The way he’s come in and taken to international cricket is probably the most important part of that. He just seems very suited to playing international cricket.”
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