The sons shining for England U19s
Richard Edwards sees an U19s side littered with famous names
Last week was one soaked in nostalgia for England under-19 coach, Michael Yardy. Not only were England inching towards a first T20 World Cup final since a side he was part of won it in the Caribbean in 2010, but he also watched on as two sons of English cricket royalty made their first non-too-tentative steps into the national team set-up.
England would ultimately fall short in their quest to repeat their 2010 heroics. But Yardy gets the sense that teenage sensations, Rocky Flintoff and Archie Vaughan, will be with us for some time to come.
But they’re not alone. In fact, this England under-19 side is really a sporting equivalent of the Generation Game, with five – now six, following Vaughan’s call up to the squad this week – all having familial links with the sport through either siblings or famous cricketing fathers.
“It’s an interesting one,” says Yardy. “If you’ve got competitive siblings, which I imagine you would have in James and Thomas Rew, you end up playing a lot against each other when you’re younger, then that can play a big part for a younger brother.
PICTURE: Alamy
“Early exposure to the professional game must help as well. It’s probably a set of unique circumstances with this group but, from our perspective, we’re not concerned by surnames, we just pick the players with the best potential, like you would in any other sport.
“A lot of the time, when you’ve had parents that have played the sport, some kids will really want to play the game, and some kids will go the other way. They’ve seen their mum and dad do it and decided it’s not for them.”
The performances of Vaughan and Flintoff Jnr’s will be scrutinised to a far greater extent than most, both for the under-19 side and when they ultimately break into the first team at Somerset, in the case of the former, and Lancashire. Their performances so far this season, suggest that both will take that step-up in their stride.
Elsewhere, Thomas Rew has already seen his brother score heavily at Taunton. Nottinghamshire’s Farhan Ahmed, meanwhile, is seen by some as being even more talented than his brother Rehan. Then you have Essex all-rounder, Luc Benkenstein, the son of Lancashire coach, Dale, and Haydon Mustard, a wicketkeeper like his dad, Phil, at Durham.
PICTURE: Alamy
“There will be those in this group, just as there will be in the Sri Lankan group, who will go on to play international cricket,” says Yardy. “It’s all about having players who can quickly take the skills they’ve got at the moment and go on to play consistently in first-team cricket at first-class level.
“It’s obviously avery different landscape. When I was coming through 25 years ago, you were judged on four-day cricket. I think young players now are a lot braver in the way they play the game. Four-day cricket was all about managing your off stump. Now you can quickly become an exceptional player by having an impact in 20 minutes. When I started playing, you would have to bat for a whole day for that to happen.”
Flintoff has already shown what he’s capable of in Second XI cricket, and although he is being carefully managed by county and country, Yardy gets the sense that this is acricketer determined to forge his own path.
“You can see some similarities in the way they play, but Rocky seems to be very much his own man,” says Yardy. “He’s his own player and he plays his cricket to enjoy it. It’s our job as coaches to make sure he continues to do that.”
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