My son has changed but will always be fiery, says Broad Snr
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Your support makes all the difference.Chris Broad acknowledges that there has been a change in his son Stuart over the last year. "He's still fiery and passionate about the game, and I think and hope he will always be, but experience changes you and he knows what's really important," said Broad Snr, who as well as working as an international match referee is to succeed Sir Ian Botham as the president of the Professional Cricketers' Association next month.
"I'm a great supporter, and I love watching, so in many respects I have the best job in the world. I think people like the fact he puts so much into the game, and that a smile isn't usually too far away."
Accompanying his son to one of npower's grassroots Urban Cricket initiatives in Nottingham this week, Chris said: "People build international sportsmen up into individuals they're not necessarily born to be. Stuart is just a normal bloke fortunate enough to have a real talent for cricket: he loves occasions like this, mixing with the supporters, but most of all he loves being in a team environment, which is probably the one thing we all miss when we stop playing. I don't offer him advice very often, he gets enough people in his ear during the season. But we do chat on a regular basis about all sorts of things, and if he wants to talk cricket, that's what we do, though whatever is said stays between us.
"It makes me smile sometimes when he's being interviewed, because you can hear the ECB's media training in a lot of what he says. But underneath he's the same bloke. I love watching him play and take wickets and score runs for England, but that's far from being the only reasons I'm very proud of being his Dad."
Broad v Beefy v Freddie
Stuart Broad has now played 38 Tests. Here's how his statistics stack up against England's other great all-rounders of recent times when they were at the same landmark:
Batting
Broad/Flintoff/Botham
Runs 1,227/1,867/1,811
High score 169/167/149no
Average 27.88/31.79/32.92
Strike rate 61.25/69.66/56.54
Bowling
Broad/Flintoff/Botham
Balls 7,662/6,357/8,717
Wickets 114/79/181
Average 34.85/38.64/21.22
Strike rate 67.2/80.14/48.1
5 wickets 3/1/15
Economy 3.11/2.88/2.64
Tests to reach 1,000 runs/100 wickets: Broad 35, Flintoff 43, Botham 19.
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