Rocky Flintoff and James Anderson given Hundred wild cards
Both Anderson, 42, and Flintoff, the younger son of Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff, 17, entered the Hundred players' draft that took place earlier this year but neither were picked up by one of the eight teams. They have now been given a second bite at the cherry through the Hundred's 'wild card' system which allows each of the eight teams to pick two domestic players who have done well at the start of the season and who then make up the 15th and 16th players in their squad.
Flintoff will play for the Northern Superchargers — the team which is coached by his father Andrew — while Anderson will play for Manchester Originals based at his home ground of Old Trafford. Anderson, who retired from Test cricket last summer, has been playing T20 cricket for the first time in 11 years and has so far taken 14 wickets in the group stage of the Blast with Lancashire Lightning, including three for 17 in his comeback match.
Flintoff is a supremely talented young all-rounder and has already played in teams coached by his father having been selected in England Lions squads over the past few months. In January he became the youngest player to score a century for England Lions in a match against a Cricket Australia XI in Brisbane, taking the record off his father who was 20 when he struck a century for England A (as the Lions was then known) against Kenya in 1998.
Anderson has been playing in the Vitality Blast with Lancashire this season
ROGER EVANS/ACTION PLUS/SHUTTERSTOCK
If Anderson plays for the Originals, he will become the second-oldest player to feature in the Hundred behind the spinner Imran Tahir who was 43 years and 149 days old when he played in 2022. Anderson turns 43 on July 30, and the Hundred starts on August 5, with the Originals' first game a day later.
If Flintoff, who was born in April 2007, were to play, he would become the youngest to play in the Hundred, taking the record off Rehan Ahmed who made his debut for Southern Brave at the age of 17 years and 355 days. Flintoff is already the youngest player to appear for Lancashire having made his first-team debut last summer.
'I've loved my time with Lancashire this season' Anderson said. 'I'm really happy to be part of the Manchester Originals squad and I'm excited to have the opportunity to add value in the Hundred. It's a competition I've really enjoyed watching. When you're at the games you can really see that it does attract a slightly different crowd, a lot of younger people and families and you can't underestimate how important that is for our game.'
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