Andy Flower

Andy Flower
Personal information
Full name Andrew Flower
Born 28 April 1968 (1968-04-28) (age 43)
Cape Town, South Africa
Nickname Petals; Flower Power (along with brother Grant)
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Batting style Left-handed
Bowling style Right-arm off break
Role Wicket-keeper England Team Director
International information
National side Zimbabwe
Test debut (cap 6) 18 October 1992 v India
Last Test 16 November 2002 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 20) 23 February 1992 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI 15 March 2003 v Sri Lanka
Domestic team information
Years Team
2002-2006 Essex
1996-2005 MCC
2003/04 South Australia
1993/94-2002/03 Mashonaland
Career statistics
Competition Test ODIs FC LA
Matches 63 213 223 380
Runs scored 4794 6786 16379 12511
Batting average 51.54 35.34 54.05 38.97
100s/50s 12/27 4/55 49/75 12/97
Top score 232* 145 271* 145
Balls bowled 3 30 629 132
Wickets - - 7 1
Bowling average - - 38.57 103.00
5 wickets in innings - - 0 0
10 wickets in match - - 0 0
Best bowling - - 1/1 1/21
Catches/stumpings 151/9 141/32 361/21 254/48
Source: Cricinfo, 13 November 2007

Andrew "Andy" Flower OBE (born 28 April 1968 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a former international cricketer for Zimbabwe and is currently the England coach.

On 22 December 2011, Andy Flower was awarded with the 2011 Coach of the Year on BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Contents

Playing career

Flower played from his high school days at Vainona High School, Harare, through to most of his career alongside his younger brother Grant Flower. He is considered to be one of the best wicket-keeper batsmen, alongside players such as Australian Adam Gilchrist. Flower made his international debut in a One Day International against Sri Lanka at New Plymouth, New Zealand, in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for more than 10 years and statistically by far the finest batsman the country has fielded. A good player of spin, he made 550 runs in a Test series against India in 2000/01. This tally came in just four innings and he was only dismissed twice.

Nearing the end of his career, Flower achieved international recognition (along with team mate Henry Olonga) in 2003 by wearing a black armband in a Cricket World Cup match to protest against the policies of Zimbabwe's government, led by Robert Mugabe. He and Olonga released a statement on 10 February, stating in part:

“ In all the circumstances, we have decided that we will each wear a black armband for the duration of the World Cup. In doing so we are mourning the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe. In doing so we are making a silent plea to those responsible to stop the abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe. In doing so, we pray that our small action may restore sanity and dignity to our Nation. ”

This act led to pressure from Zimbabwe's government and Flower's retirement from Zimbabwean cricket. He later played an English county cricket season for Essex and an Australian domestic season for South Australia.

Flower played 63 Test matches for Zimbabwe, scoring 4,794 runs at an average of 51.54 and taking 151 catches and 9 stumpings, and 213 One Day Internationals, scoring 6,786 runs at an average of 35.34 and taking 141 catches and 32 stumpings. He holds the Zimbabwean records for the most Test career runs, the highest Test batting average, and most ODI career runs. He is the only Zimbabwean in the ICC's Top 100 All-time Test Batting rankings at Number 28, putting him in the company of Brian Lara (ranked 19), Sachin Tendulkar (20), Steve Waugh (23) and Rahul Dravid (25 in September 2006).

His aggregate score of 341 in the first Test against South Africa in 2001, is the highest ever by a batsman on the losing side. It broke Herbert Sutcliffe's match tally of 303 in January 1925, in a losing cause for England against Australia in a Timeless Test.[1]

Coaching career

On 7 May 2007, Flower was appointed Assistant Coach of the England team, replacing Matthew Maynard. The Zimbabwean joined up with Peter Moores and the rest of the squad for the first Test match against the West Indies at Lord's on 17 May 2007. Upon his appointment to this role with the ECB, Flower, having not played that season due to injury, ended his playing spell at Essex, bringing his playing career to a close.

On 15 April 2009, following England's Caribbean tour, for which he was installed as interim team director following the departure of Peter Moores, he was appointed full-time team director.[2] In the Summer of 2009, during his tenure as team director, England won The Ashes, beating Australia by two Test matches to one. In May 2010, they won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. In November–January 2010/2011 England won the Ashes in Australia by three Test matches to one.

Flower as appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to sport.[3][4]

On 13 August 2011 Flower led the England cricket team to become the number one ranked team in terms of test playing countries.[5]

International cricket centuries

Test centuries

Test hundreds of Andy Flower
Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
[1] 115 4  India New Delhi, India Kotla March 13, 1993
[2] 156 21  Pakistan Harare, Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club January 31, 1995
[3] 112 31  England Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club December 18, 1996
[4] 105* 36  Sri Lanka Colombo, Sri Lanka SSC Colombo January 14, 1998
[5] 100*  Pakistan Bulawayo, Zimbabwe March 14, 1998
[6] 129  Sri Lanka Harare, Zimbabwe November 26, 1999
[7] 113* March 16, 2000
[8] 183*  India
[9] 232*  India
[10] 142
[11] 199*
[12] 114*

One Day International centuries

One Day International centuries of Andy Flower
Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
[1] 115* 1  Sri Lanka New Plymouth, New Zealand Pukekura Park 1992
[2] 120* 150  Sri Lanka Sharjah, UAE Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium 2000
[3] 142* 178  England Harare, Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club 2001
[4] 145 196  India Colombo, Sri Lanka R Premadasa Stadium 2002

References

  1. ^ Frindall, Bill (2009). Ask Bearders. BBC Books. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-84607-880-4. 
  2. ^ "ECB appoint Flower as team director"
  3. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59808. p. 10. 11 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook lead Birthday Honours list". BBC. 10 June 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/13726861.stm. Retrieved 20011-06-11. 
  5. ^ "England beat India to become world number one Test side"

External links

Preceded by
David Houghton		 Zimbabwean national cricket captain
1993/4-5/6		 Succeeded by
Alistair Campbell
Preceded by
Alistair Campbell		 Zimbabwean national cricket captain
1999/2000-2000		 Succeeded by
Heath Streak
England squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20
England squad – 2010 ICC World Twenty20 (1st title)
England squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup
Eoin Morgan was named in the squad but withdrew after injury; Ravi Bopara was called up as a replacement. Morgan returned to the squad during the group stage when Kevin Pietersen withdrew due to injury. Chris Tremlett replaced the injured Stuart Broad mid-way through the group stage. Jade Dernbach replaced the injured Ajmal Shahzad for the quarter finals. Adil Rashid replaced Michael Yardy who went home for personal reasons before the quarter final.
Zimbabwe squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup
Campbell and Matsikenyeri replaced Vermeulen and Murphy on 10 March 2003
Zimbabwe squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup
Zimbabwe squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup
Zimbabwe squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup
Batsmen with a Test batting average above 50
Australia
England
India
Pakistan
South Africa
Sri Lanka
West Indies
Zimbabwe
  • Andy Flower (51.54)
Minimum 20 innings. Current players are listed in Bold italics.