{"id":288474,"date":"2023-09-12T17:36:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T17:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=288474"},"modified":"2023-09-12T17:36:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T17:36:01","slug":"freddie-flintoff-pinching-himself-to-be-back-involved-with-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/%d1%81ricket\/freddie-flintoff-pinching-himself-to-be-back-involved-with-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddie Flintoff &apos;pinching himself&apos; to be back involved with England"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Freddie Flintoff is &#8216;pinching himself&#8217; to be back involved with England after his near-fatal car crash while filming Top Gear, says Paul Collingwood<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Flintoff is a consultant for England in their one-day series versus New Zealand<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He had a near-fatal car crash while filming for Top Gear in December last year<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><span>The former all-rounder appeared in public\u00a0for the first time last week since then<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Andrew Flintoff is \u2018pinching himself\u2019 to be involved with the England team again, according to his 2005 Ashes-winning team-mate Paul Collingwood.<\/p>\n<p>Flintoff is being used by Jos Buttler\u2019s side as a consultant during their one-day series against New Zealand, having appeared in public for the first time last week following a near-fatal car crash while filming the BBC\u2019s Top Gear show in December 2022.<\/p>\n<p>And the former England captain, who played the last of his 79 Tests in 2009, was all smiles in training ahead of today\u2019s third ODI at The Oval, laughing and joking with Jonny Bairstow, and wearing a baseball mitt to act as a makeshift wicketkeeper for Jofra Archer.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s important for him, and it\u2019s great for the lads to have him around,\u2019 said Collingwood, England\u2019s assistant Test coach. \u2018The knowledge he\u2019s got playing the game and pressure situations \u2013 he pretty much encapsulated how this white-ball team goes about their cricket. It\u2019s all about putting the opposition under pressure, which is exactly what he did.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He\u2019s got to pinch himself at times. It\u2019s like: \u201cI\u2019m working with these guys that I\u2019ve been watching on TV!\u201d For someone like that to say that is really humbling.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/16\/75341265-0-image-a-147_1694533112085.jpg\" height=\"450\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Andrew Flintott (pictured) is &#8216;pinching himself&#8217; to be back involved with England cricket again, according to Paul Collingwood<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/16\/75341281-0-image-a-148_1694533117362.jpg\" height=\"433\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Flintoff is being used by Jos Buttler&#8217;s side as a consultant during their one-day series agaisnt New Zealand<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/16\/75342199-12509709-image-m-159_1694534364575.jpg\" height=\"395\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Collingwood, England&#8217;s assistant Test coach, played with Flintoff when England won the Ashes in 2005<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He went more down the entertainment route and been very successful with it as well. But he\u2019s at a time in his life where this is what he wants to do, and the best thing for him mentally is to be in and around the team. I think he\u2019s really enjoyed it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Collingwood, the first man to captain England to World Cup success, at the T20 version in 2010, believes the current one-day side are in as good a space as they were heading into the 2019 tournament, where Eoin Morgan\u2019s side triumphed in the final at Lord\u2019s against New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think they\u2019re in a very similar position,\u2019 he said, speaking after a child-first coaching session for youngsters, as part of the Children\u2019s Coaching Collaborative\u2019s innovative \u2018Play Their Way\u2019 campaign. \u2018It\u2019s very rare you go into World Cups and have that genuine belief that we can win this thing, no matter what conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Going to India has got its different challenges, but they\u2019ve certainly got the skill levels in that dressing-room and the pool of players who can go out and retain the World Cup. That\u2019s a huge carrot, to retain a World Cup. I\u2019m sure the confidence is there that they can do it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2010, England drafted openers Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter into their T20 side at the last minute, and went on to win the trophy in the Caribbean. This time, the talk is about squeezing Harry Brook into the squad, and Collingwood admitted: \u2018He has got a very high ceiling. He\u2019s had an amazing start to his international career, and his stats are incredible. We all know he can win games, but so can the other players that are on the squad as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You can probably call on 20 or 22 players now who could go on and win that World Cup. Unfortunately, you have to get them down to 15. That just shows how strong the game is at the moment in England. We\u2019re in a really strong position and it\u2019s going to be exciting to see what happens.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/18\/75342075-12509709-The_former_England_captain_was_speaking_after_a_session_coaching-a-7_1694538259693.jpg\" height=\"417\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The former England captain was speaking after a session coaching youngsters as\u00a0part of Chance To Shine\u2019s innovative \u2018Play Their Way\u2019 campaign<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/12\/16\/75342071-12509709-image-a-160_1694534380825.jpg\" height=\"393\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He said that England have the skill levels and players available to retain the 50-over World Cup in India later this year<\/p>\n<p>Collingwood sang the praises of the Play Their Way scheme, saying it encouraged youngsters to play their natural game in the wake of the Bazball revolution led by Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018There\u2019s a temptation as a coach to start by teaching children the defensive techniques,\u2019 he said. \u2018Don\u2019t get out \u2013 play the forward defensive. That\u2019s what you\u2019ve got to learn first.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m a big believer that you\u2019re not going to get many kids to come back if that\u2019s what you teach first. It\u2019s encouraging the kids to make sure they\u2019re having fun and almost go \u201cI want to hit the ball or bowl the ball fast or spin the ball as much as I can\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Encouraging them to do that and educating coaches to be give them the freedom to express themselves is quite an important thing. To have that mentality as early as possible, you\u2019re allowing a player, however young they are, to express themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><span>To learn more about Play Their Way, access resources and sign up to join the biggest grassroots movement to transform the way we coach our children and young people visit <\/span><span>www.playtheirway.org<\/span><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/cricket\/article-12509709\/Freddie-Flintoff-pinching-involved-England-car-crash-Gear.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Freddie Flintoff is &#8216;pinching himself&#8217; to be back involved with England after his near-fatal car crash while filming Top Gear, says Paul Collingwood Flintoff is <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/%d1%81ricket\/freddie-flintoff-pinching-himself-to-be-back-involved-with-england\/\" title=\"Freddie Flintoff &amp;apos;pinching himself&amp;apos; to be back involved with England\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ricket"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Freddie Flintoff &amp;apos;pinching himself&amp;apos; to be back involved with England - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\u0441ricket\/freddie-flintoff-pinching-himself-to-be-back-involved-with-england\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freddie Flintoff &amp;apos;pinching himself&amp;apos; 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