Thursday 25 / April / 2024
I had the privilege to meet the great Andy Flower in person at my office two years ago but interviewing him on a zoom chat was a great learning experience.
My first question to Andy was what made him score so many runs against India and he replied with a smile that he loved playing in India. Zimbabwe first test was against India at Harare and their first overseas tour was also against India and he remembers the spirit of cricket in India and the amazing excitement which engulfs the country even when a tiny little county which is followed so passionately in India evokes feelings and gets the best out of any player. The love of cricket and the feeling which evoked playing against India. He added that he learnt playing spin from Dave Hougton and watching good players of spin and copying them made him good player of spin which eventually helped him score big against India.
He had scored 500 runs in the 2001 series against India dismissed only twice and using his feet against the spinners and watching great players like Sachin Tendulkar and Javed Miandad when he was wicket keeping made him understand to play spinner. He had developed a good defence as well as could attack spinners and had an average of 52 in Test Cricket after playing 62 test matches.
He recalls the first test win against Pakistan in 1995 which got the monkey of their back as they used to come close before but could not win the games but this win was special with his brother Grant Flower scoring a double hundred and he scoring 140 made that win extra special. This was very important for their nation as it gave a lot of confidence to the team and players individually which is so crucial to do well.
His two hundreds in the same test match against South Africa of 142 and one 199 not out against top class south Africa attack made those twin hundreds special. When I asked him about his special bonding with his brother Grant flower, he said they used to both
play in the garden of their house and his brother was his best coach than he was to him as he corrected his mistakes. They used to train together in the gym, bat on cement tracks together and got to know each other well and were good friends.
He made his ODI debut in the 1992 world cup and in the first game hit a hundred against Sri Lanka which was so special and Zimbabwe scored 315 batting first and he thought they would win that game but Sri Lanka chased down that target and he was quite gutted. He spoke about the famous win against India where he was the highest scorer in 1999 in England when Henry Olonga knocked three batters in one over to pull off an astonishing win against heavy weights India. That made them
qualify for the Super 8's where they beat South Africa too and it was one off the highest point of Zimbabwe cricket in ODI.
After his retirement he took over as an assistant coach of England under Peter Moore's but after the fall out with Kevin Piterson , Andy got the head coach job and did wonders for team England. Under him as coach England won three Ashes series which was special and specially the Ashes win down under where England won 3/1 was very pleasing as after that England has not managed to win a single game in England. He said as much as he was happy winning England winning against India 4/0 in England and attain the number one status but the series win against India in India where they came back from behind to win the series 2/1 was very very special.
He added another feather to his coaching hat by making England win the 2010 T20 World Cup which was England’s first ICC trophy win and he recalls how they changed their style of playing after loosing to England Lions in UAE and picking two attacking players on Craig Kiewitter and Michael Lumb and played a different brand of cricket in the 2010 world cup and winning it.
He is now enjoying his stint as coach in franchise cricket , he was not exactly sure how it would go about coaching in franchise cricket compared to a national team. He met different people from around the world and made friends with them , be it coaching in CPL , PSL or IPL. He said he does not have any magic wand but learning from each franchise tournament and getting the best out of each team and maximizing every players talent. One of the biggest challenges is getting people together from different cultures and that's the key for a franchise to do well.
When I asked him about his new challenge of being the head coach of Lucknow Super Giants for the IPl after being assistant coach in the IPL earlier to Anil Kumble, he said he thanks Anil Kumble for the experience he got from that stint and can't wait to begin his new innings with new franchise Lucknow Super Giants.
I had to ask him about the big IPL Auction coming up on 12 and 13th of this month. He says he is very fortunate that Doctor Goenka the owner of Lucknow Super Giants backed him and made him the head coach and he hope he can carry on the good work. He has been working closely with Doctor Goenka, Raghu Iyer the CEO and Gautam Gambhir the consultant for the auction strategy
and getting the right people on board for this exciting new Franchise Lucknow Super Giants. The range of variables which exist in the big auction is quite daunting as all ten teams have to build their team from scratch like his own team and for him this will be his first experience and he is looking forward to it along with his esteemed team. He added a combination of good preparation and home work is important but also being flexible in the moment is most important during the big auction.
There might be the odd bargain which might come up which other team must have not planned and how they that decision at that time. And there might be a scenario where the short listed few players would have been taken by other teams and that they will have to combine cricketing intelligence with black and white data and be flexible in the moment and he is confident they would be able to pick the right squad in the first season and challenge the other nine teams in this years IPL.
He winded by saying that a good auction strategy translates in to success and he is hoping for one for his franchise Lucknow Super Giants.
