Former cricket captain Flower named England assistant manager

By Lance Guma
07 May 2007

Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Andy Flower has been named new assistant manager to England’s cricket team. Flower was playing for Essex in England and joins newly appointed coach Peter Moores who took over from another Zimbabwean, Duncan Fletcher. Flower announced his retirement from international cricket after a turbulent 2003 World Cup. He and fellow teammate Henry Olonga wore black armbands mourning the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. Olonga fled the country following death threats.

England’s new coach Moores is confident Flower will add a wealth of international experience as well as a clear understanding of the domestic game in England and Wales. The two have worked together at the National Academy for the past two seasons where Flower was a specialist batting coach and is said to have done an excellent job. The former Zimbabwe batsman will join the England coaching staff before the first Test against the West Indies on the 17th May.

Flower is undoubtedly one of Zimbabwe’s best ever cricketers and has a career spanning over 20 years. He has scored a total 16379 first class runs and played over 63 test matches in which he notched up 4794 runs. He has managed an impressive 12 centuries and 160 dismissals as a wicket keeper. In 2002 he was the first wicketkeeper to go to the top of the PricewaterhouseCoopers ratings for Test batsman and named Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

For the past 5 years Flower has been playing for Essex but never featured this season due to injury. Commenting soon after his appointment he said, ‘I'm proud of the days I spent in Zimbabwe and I'm proud of the fact that when we were given Test status we worked our hides off, sweating blood and tears trying to justify that promotion to Test and one-day international cricket.’