On the Rocky road to stardom

ROCKY FLINTOFF is already the youngest cricketer to be picked for an England Lions tour.

- RICHARD EDWARDS

And the odds that the 16-year-old wins an England Test cap before he's 21 - the age his famous dad managed it- are shrinking all the time.

No wonder that there's a buzz at St Annes Cricket Club, the Northern Premier League outfit that helped develop both.

Andrew Freddie Flintoff, who will coach the Lions, and his precocious teenage son.

"You could see straight away that Rocky had got his dad's genes," said Kevin Reid, St Annes' senior cricket lead.

"He was way above average height when he was only 13.1 "You can never be certain that somebody is going to go on and play international cricket. But with the natural ability he has, you could see there was a pretty good chance he would." The teenage star made his Lancashire debut in red- and white-ball cricket this summer.