Zimbabwe star heads England cricket

  1. Posted on Thursday 16 April 2009 - 10:30
    bruce
    Bruce Sibanda, AfricaNews reporter in Harare, Zimbabwe
    Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Andy Flower, who once wore a black armband while playing for Zimbabwe in protest at the policies of the country's president Robert Mugabe, has been announced as England's new full-time team director of cricket.
    Andy Flower
    Flower, 40, played 63 tests for Zimbabwe and was an assistant coach with England for the past two years. He replaces Peter Moores who was sacked in January after a breakdown in his relationship with former captain Kevin Pietersen.

    According to Cricinfo, his salary would be about £250,000. His first major job will be to help select the squad for the first Test against West Indies, at Lord's, which begins on May 6.

    "There are some big decisions we have to make, it is a huge summer ahead of us," Flower said. "It's going to come up on us very quickly, some of our players are already away at the IPL, and the season starts today so there are big decisions to make and hard work to be done."

    Heath Streak former Zimbabwe captain speaking from his Turk Mine Fram said he is happy for Flower.

    “Just by virtue of what he did on the field he had the respect of all his peers. He has always been a great thinker of the game and that helped make him a natural leader. When he took over the captaincy there was no doubting how highly he was respected by the players. He basically lived cricket and he loved the game.”

    During his playing days he had two stints as Zimbabwe captain, leading them to their first Test victory against Pakistan in 1994-95, and then becoming the first Zimbabwean to lead a Test tour of England, in 2000.

    An assured player of fast bowling since his early days as an opener, Flower matured into one of the best players of spin in the world, and on the Indian tour early in 2001 he made 540 runs for twice out.

    He announced his retirement from international cricket after a turbulent 2003 World Cup, which started with an unprecedented protest by Flower, and his equally brave team-mate Henry Olonga, about what they called the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe. Flower played for Essex from 2002 until 2006, and enjoyed a season in South Australia in 2003-04. He was born April 28, 1968, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa among the teams he played for are Zimbabwe, Essex, Marylebone Cricket Club, Mashonaland.

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