Andy Flower has done it all—a batting great, a stellar wicket-keeper, a celebrated captain—the former Zimbabwe cricketer has also helped England win two Ashes as coach and made them the T20 world champions in 2010.
As a batsman, he was ahead of his time, employing the reverse sweep against spin on Indian tracks to perfection. Now, Flower brings his experience and acumen as a coach in T20 leagues around the world. Currently in the Caribbean as the head coach of St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), his next assignment will be to help Kings XI Punjab navigate the IPL in UAE as assistant coach.
“It has driven innovation in the game. As the standards of the game have risen, batsmen have found the necessity of finding ways to keep the scoring rate as high as possible. For bowlers, it’s to find ways to restrict the batsmen. So, we have seen some brilliant innovations like reverse sweep, scoops, different ways of finding gaps and boundaries. The bowlers are getting better at delivering yorkers as well as different types of slower balls. These innovations filter into other formats of the game. So, it’s brilliant for cricket to witness this. I expect T10 becoming more prominent over the next decade, and I see the game progressing” he said.
Flower also opined that coaching is different in international cricket and T20 franchise cricket.
“It is very different. (In international cricket) you are looking at progressive improvement. You are working on skills, physicality, understanding of the game; their understanding of themselves as players. You are looking for growth and development in medium to long term.
In franchise cricket, it’s more managing a group of players than perhaps coaching them; making them feel confident and ready for on-the-spot decision making that is becoming quicker and quicker, and more necessary as the game speeds up” he added.
