England ready for Flower power
After three months of huffing and puffing, the ECB have given the role of Team Director to the man who was already in temporary charge. For all the nonsense of headhunting and shortlists, the appointment of Andy Flower does seem to be the right decision, at least on the face of it.
The tour of the West Indies, whilst not a success in terms of results, allowed Flower and captain Andrew Strauss the chance to forge a working relationship whilst under relatively little pressure, having only been appointed to their roles two weeks before the team left for the Caribbean.
It soon became evident that Flower would not be prepared to indulge the old boys club in the way that Peter Moores, and indeed Duncan Fletcher towards the end of his reign, had done. GCW’s least favourite England cricketers, Ian Bell and Steve Harmison, were dropped amid criticism and Monty Panesar & Ryan Sidebottom also spent time out of the team when their performances did not improve.
In the case of Harmison, it is possible that the emergence of a genuine pace bowler for England would spell the end of his international career, as he continues to flatter to decieve. As with Bell, it is not a question of talent, but of mentality.
If Flower and Strauss are to drag England out of their cycle of under-achievement, they will need to stamp out the culture of complacency that has surrounded the squad in the last 3-4 years as well as introduce some young faces for the future. The World Twenty20 might offer the initial opportunity for this, as the upcoming Ashes series dominates the test match thinking for the time being, demanding a certain amount of short-term thinking.
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