London : England's managing director, Rob Key said that former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has a "gift" for man-management akin to Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes and that he will be an "excellent" contender to take over as England's head coach someday.
Key confirmed that Flintoff has also been named to England's back-room staff for their T20 World Cup campaign in the Caribbean in June, his most substantial engagement with the team to date, as Jos Buttler's men look to defend their championship from two years ago in Australia.
"Without question, I think he would be an excellent head coach. 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," Key told The Telegraph as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Key believes Flintoff's troubles have given him an "emotional intelligence" that athletes cherish when coping with the stresses of high-level sport.
"Flintoff is a leader like [Ben] Stokes. Just having someone who knows what it is like to struggle and come out the other end is so relatable to those players. When they have had a bad day he can explain it. He is one of those people when he talks to you he is working you out," Key said.
"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," he added.
Flintoff's England role will stretch into the four-match T20I series against Pakistan that follows the T20 World Cup, after which the squad's return to St Lucia will rekindle memories of the notorious Pedalo incident, which defined England's disastrous performance at the 2007 50-over World Cup.
Key believes that Flintoff's expertise will be beneficial as he progresses in his coaching career, and he hopes that other prominent recent players, such as Moeen Ali and Eoin Morgan, will be similarly fast-tracked back into the professional set-up following their playing days.
"If you could design the perfect head coach development programme, Flintoff is going on a brilliant journey. He started off as a mentor helping out, then a bit of Lions cricket, the under-19s and he is going to be a head coach of a team with a draft, working out how you assemble a squad and get them all playing together quickly," Key said.
"That is relevant experience much more than sitting on a Zoom call listening to someone tell you what to do. Moeen Ali I think will be an excellent coach, there are so many people. They have these skills and we want to try to create experiences where they can really learn," Key added.