One of the most interesting developments in England’s white-ball set-up in recent months has been the addition of Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff to the backroom staff.

The 46-year-old had been away from professional cricket for a number of years as he made a name for himself as a presenter and TV personality.

Easily the most recognisable cricketer of the past 25 years thanks to his heroics in the 2005 Ashes – the last home Test series shown on free-to-air TV in the UK – Flintoff made a great success of his second career.

However, that was stopped in its tracks in December 2022 when he had a horrific accident while filming for Top Gear at Dunsfold airfield in Surrey.

Flipping an open-top sports car at 130mph, the crash could have ended his life. Yet after months of painstaking recovery and rehabilitation, he came back into the public fold at the end of last summer when he was spotted on the outfield before an England ODI against New Zealand at Cardiff.

Still sporting noticeable scars from his brush with death, Flintoff, known as Fred to teammates, was offered a route back into cricket by Rob Key, his close friend and England’s director of cricket, who persuaded him to take on an unpaid consultancy role during that series. There was no official announcement and his role only came to light when he was seen on the field in Cardiff.

He wasn’t part of the coaching staff for the 50-over World Cup in India that followed, but after spending part of the winter working with England’s white-ball team on a tour of the West Indies, and as a mentor with the under-19s and Lions teams, he is back in the West Indies for this T20 World Cup as a paid consultant.

Reluctant to speak in public on this tour, and with most of his close friends in cricket unwilling to speak about his latest career move, there’s an odd dynamic at play where the most high-profile cricketer of the past quarter of a century is almost England’s secret weapon in this tournament, such is his lack of visibility.

One person who has given some insight into Flintoff’s role with the team now is fast bowler Mark Wood, who spoke at England’s team hotel in Barbados the morning after the frustrating rain-ruined tournament opener against Scotland on Tuesday. “He’s fantastic,” Wood said. “He’s got a real aura, the way he speaks. He comes up to people individually, pulls them aside and keeps things very simple.

“He mentioned to me that he didn’t have a slower ball. And I was thinking I very rarely bowl slower balls. He told me had three balls – a bouncer, a fast yorker and a hard length. He was talking about that to me and he makes it incredibly simple for us. He’s great to have around the group, easy to talk to and carries that natural aura.”

Such has been the impression Flintoff has made since his reintroduction to cricket last autumn, he has landed the job as the head coach of Northern Superchargers in this year’s Hundred. He is the only English head coach in this summer’s tournament. And like many of his other friends, Marcus North, the former Australia batter who is head of cricket at the Superchargers, was unwilling to speak about Flintoff when contacted by i in the run-up to this tournament.

Read Next

Yet Key has not been afraid to extol the virtues of his old friend, perhaps even going too far when he predicted Flintoff might be a future England white-ball head coach, when speaking in March.

“Without question, he would be an excellent head coach,” Key said. “Who knows where he ends up in the future. He will be a worthy candidate, going forward. When that time comes and whoever is in this job, and it might be outside of my time, they would be stupid not to look at him.

“He has helped us immensely. Just having someone who knows what it is like to struggle and come out the other end is so relatable to those players. He has high emotional intelligence, so he understands when you need a bit of an arm around your shoulder or blunt honesty. Those are the skills that make a great leader.

“Leadership is about making the people around you feel better and he is someone who is like that. He has a lot to offer.”

Those heartfelt words definitely came from a good place. Yet they did threaten to create a rather odd dynamic between Flintoff and current white-ball head coach Matthew Mott at this tournament.

Still, Flintoff being involved with cricket – and England – is great news for the sport, for him and, as Wood said, the players as well.