Andrew Flintoff: “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”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Andrew Flintoff has confirmed that he will apply for the England head coach job when Trevor Bayliss’ tenure comes to an end.

Bayliss recently announced that he will step down from the position after the 2019 Ashes series, which is when his current contract expires.

“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,” Flintoff said on his podcast Flintoff, Savage and The Ping Pong Guy as quoted by cricket.com.au.

The former England all-rounder also brought to light the fact that he had previously applied for the position when Peter Moores took over as head coach in 2014.

“We spoke about it and I was serious, but I had to think if I’d be better than the person they’re choosing,” he said. “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.”

Flintoff added that a clerical error left him with no reply for three weeks and nearly ruined his chances of being interviewed.

“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,” he said. “(I found out) the ECB thought it wasn’t me despite me having one email all my life.”

Flintoff also noted that should he become coach, he will focus more on the mental aspect of things.

“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 practicing, but I should’ve spent more time focussing on my mind.”

Moving on to the subject of the recent Ashes series, which Australia won 4-0, Flintoff admitted that he was highly impressed that Australia’s quarter of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon all took more than 20 wickets in the five-match series.

“As a rounded unit they’ve got now are the best they’ve had,” he said. “You’ve got (Mitchell) Starc who bowls fast left-arm. (Josh) Hazlewood surprised me so much, he was the fastest of the lot of them, he was bowling at 150kph. You had (Pat) Cummins who I didn’t think was good, who was good. Then you had the spinner (Nathan) Lyon, so as an attack it’s as good as you’ll face.

“The one bloke who epitomised it for me was Hazlewood, I watched him charge in spell after spell like his life depended on it, compared to England’s bowlers who looked like they were lobbing in.”

The Lancashire native also conceded that the series scoreline highlighted the difference between both sides.

“For the first time in a long time, Australia have become Australia again, they were ruthless,” he said. “England have gone back to England, back to the way they were in the 1990s, soft.”