The Flintoff 王朝: How Freddie, still 回復するing from his 最高の，を越す Gear 事故, is guiding the 早期に careers of his sons - 16 and 18... and the 役割 they play in his 未来

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Of all the 発射s, it is the 署名 pull 一打／打撃 that most 需要・要求するs the 二塁打 take: 長，率いる dipping as the muscular でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる swivels, 負わせる transferring の上に the 支援する foot as the 前線 one 解除するs わずかに awkwardly from the turf.

It is an image from that iconic summer of 2005 事業／計画（する）d through a new レンズ. Ball 存在 belted through the Birmingham 微風 and into the stands. Not on the television 審査するs of a nation infatuated with the Ashes, but on the social マスコミ pop-ups of curious 郡 cricket aficionados.

Andrew Flintoff has 試みる／企てるd to mute the noise around his two cricketing sons, but the 活動／戦闘s of Rocky, 16, at Edgbaston last week 叫び声をあげるd for attention.

Playing と一緒に Corey, 18, for Lancashire’s Second XI, he 示すd just his third 外見 with a maiden 上級の hundred against Warwickshire.

The candles on his most 最近の birthday cake had only been blown out a 事柄 of hours when he 攻撃する，衝突する an unbeaten 50 off Durham’s attack the previous week.

Rocky Flintoff 粉砕するd his first century for Lancashire second XI against Warwickshire

The 十代の少年少女 所有するd the same mannerisms as his father Andrew Flintoff, pictured in 2005

Rocky, (pictured in 2013 with his dad Andrew), appears to have been taught 井戸／弁護士席 by the England 広大な／多数の／重要な

Such 独特の movements brought 支援する memories for Mail Sport’s David Lloyd の中で others.

‘All the mannerisms were 正確に／まさに the same. He just looked the 絶対の spit of him. The way he walks, the way he runs between the wickets, you could see he was a Flintoff straightaway,’ Lloyd says.

As Lancashire 長，率いる coach, Lloyd watched Flintoff 上級の intently at the same age in the 中央の-1990s and 投機・賭けるd to the family home in Preston to 推論する／理由, over tea and 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s, that 未来 ambitions would be best met 負かす／撃墜する the road at Old Trafford rather than with Northamptonshire, whose 申し込む／申し出 to uproot 含むd a 私的な school education.

‘Bumble’ later 手渡す him a 郡 選手権 debut at 17 and, after a harrowing maiden first-class 外見 伴う／関わるing almost as many dropped catches as runs, Flintoff would say that he 行方不明になるd his first coach’s knowledgable 影響（力） as their paths 長，率いるd in different directions.

‘Freddie’ is now the one 供給するing wise counsel, taking 支配（する）／統制する of his sons’ 早期に careers. So far, that has 伴う／関わるd keeping the マスコミ at arm’s length, 教えるing Lancashire to rebuff requests for interviews and photographs to 許す them to 焦点（を合わせる） on their 業績／成果s.

It feels 必然的な, however, that he will soon be scanning the 条件 of a couple of 新人 professional 契約s.

At 首長国s Old Trafford, 上級の players 認める that the talent Flintoff 陳列する，発揮するd in transcending the sport with his 偉業／利用するs against Australia 19 years ago has passed through the 遺伝子s.

‘They’re good kids. Rocky is the one that’s got the headlines and rightly so, because he’s put a couple of 得点する／非難する／２０s together and he’s a solid player,’ said England 急速な／放蕩な bowler Saqib Mahmood, who has been captaining Lancashire’s second XI while managing his return from long-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 傷害.

Rocky (底（に届く） centre) and his older brother Corey (left) are having the 早期に 行う／開催する／段階s of their careers carefully managed by their father

England 急速な／放蕩な bowler Saqib Mahmood believes Rocky and Corey will be 'proper cricketers'

‘In some ways, for 乱打するs it can be easier to make the step up in second team cricket, because you go from batting on club wickets to some pretty flat ones at main 郡 grounds and if you’ve got a good technique, as Rocky has, you can put together an innings.

‘Corey bats a bit 同様に, though, and they’re going to be proper cricketers.’

Indisputably, since the siblings debuted together in a Roses contest at Headingley earlier this month, in contrast to Rocky’s six-slamming in innings of 50 off 68 ver sus Durham and 116 off 168 against Warwickshire, Corey, two years his 上級の, has made more modest 声明s.

That, in part, is 負かす／撃墜する to the fact that the 強調する／ストレス fracture of the 支援する he 苦しむd last year 現在／一般に 制限するs him to four overs per innings on his return to bowling programme.

But both are still coming to 条件 with their physicality and there are echoes of their father here: Flintoff played as a specialist 乱打する for a period in his late teens to 避ける irrevocably 損失ing his 支援する as boy became man.

‘Rocky’s 手渡すs make 地雷 look like a child’s 手渡すs. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw them,’ Mahmood 観察するs.

They are also fuelled by an undiluted love of the sport. ‘Last week, we played at Old Trafford and when a game gets rain 影響する／感情d, I like to have a nap. So we had the entire team playing one 手渡す, one bounce in the dressing room and me, the grandad of the group at the age of 27, lying on the physio bed 急速な／放蕩な asleep. I literally couldn’t believe how much energy they had,’ Mahmood continues.

The generational gap was felt more 広範囲にわたって in Birmingham when the 上級の プロの／賛成の, taxi-ing a posse of the 学院 players 含むing Rocky, stopped at a cafe and 申し込む／申し出d to shout coffee: ‘I’m used to people asking for flat whites or a cappuccino, but they were like, ‘nah.’ They ordered chocolate milkshakes.’

The 旅行 of his two sons helped Flintoff to re-engage with cricket in the 影響 of his shocking 最高の，を越す Geat 事故 in December 2022

The Flintoffs’ 偉業／利用するs on the cricket field with Manchester Grammar - 母校 of Michael Atherton, John Crawley and 示す Chilton, and where another ex-England player マイク Watkinson is 長，率いる of sport - stretch 支援する seven years to when Corey captained the Under-11s to three トロフィーs, 含むing the Lancashire Cup, inside a fortnight.

And it was through their 旅行s that Flintoff, 46, re-engaged with cricket. Firstly, moving them from the 地元の club of Alderley 辛勝する／優位 to St Anne’s, where he himself played as a youngster, then on to Southport in the Liverpool 競争, now 広範囲にわたって recognised as the best in the north-west.

Deeper 関与 （機の）カム in the most 苦しめるing of circumstances last year, during 回復 from the shocking 最高の，を越す Gear 事故 in December 2022 that saw him hospitalised for five weeks, when watching his boys in 地域の tournaments led to some informal scouting work for the ECB.

By the end of the summer, he was interacting with England players, having been 招待するd to watch the Ashes と一緒に 略奪する 重要な, one of his closest friends during a career 削減（する） short at 31 予定 to a chronic 膝 傷害.

At the start of this one, he is fully immersed in the game once more - a 欠如（する） of coaching 資格s conveniently overlooked to 手渡す him positions as an assistant to Matthew Mott in England’s 試みる／企てるs to 保持する the T wenty20 World 肩書を与える this June, and the main man with Northern Superchargers in the Hundred.

Flintoff has moved into coaching in 最近の months, working with England's men's team

He 最初 shied away from the マスコミ スポットライト after 存在 伴う／関わるd in a 近づく-致命的な car 衝突，墜落 while filming 最高の，を越す Gear, but he returned to cricket with facial 示すs last year

The 指名する might open doors, but living with it can be a seismic struggle, and as Liam Botham 設立する out in the 1990s, 存在 the son of a superstar slayer of Australians is as much 悪口を言う／悪態 as blessing.

When he took five wickets on debut for Hampshire against Middlesex, 含むing that of ex-England captain マイク Gatting, he appeared to have seconded his dad Ian’s script writer.

But after just two その上の 外見s, he switched to the rugby codes, 結論するing: ‘I can never 勝利，勝つ at cricket having this 指名する. If I do 井戸／弁護士席 people will say I should do. If I do 不正に they would say I was only in the 味方する because of whose son I am. I wish I could be called plain Liam Bloggs.’

Given the personality of their famous father, whatever happens from here, the Flintoffs are ありそうもない to do plain.