Andy Flower it is then....

Eric Air Emu wrote:I'm not against Flower- but I'd put him on something like a year long contract initially. He's got negligible experience so there's no point in declaring him the new permanent absolute master of the realm of English misery yet. Give him the series against Windies, OZ & South Africa (plus assorted hitty-giggly sticks tournaments) and see what comes out.

And yes, just what is the point of a panel of selectors?

A 12 month contract is no where near long enough - I'd make it three years. Yes I'd scrap the selection committe as well, and give the coach sole control over selection - maybe with an assistant who will spend more time watching county cricket than he will with the England side.

Now that I think about it, Andy Flower's quite a logical choice. We'll be complimenting a poor group of selectors and a poor captain with a poor coach.

Flower to be officially named as coach tomorrow, according to Sky news.

'He was always our first choice' says gitface Morris who I read somewhere or heard somewhere they other day had actually 'enhanced' his reputation over the winter... WTF!? I nearly boffed.

Augustus wrote:Now that I think about it, Andy Flower's quite a logical choice. We'll be complimenting a poor group of selectors and a poor captain with a poor coach.

Bit harsh on Strauss. He did all right over the winter. Better to judge him after a period where the side isn't in turmoil and he can actually have his own team under him.

So, hours away from the official announcement - is everyone moist with anticipation?

Speak now or forever hold your piece

I'm moist ... but not for the reason you suggest.

HH_pink wrote:I'm moist ... but not for the reason you suggest.

That is verging on too much information.

HH_pink wrote:I'm moist ... but not for the reason you suggest.

They can do something for incontinence these days Pinky!

JKLever wrote:'He was always our first choice' says gitface Morris who I read somewhere or heard somewhere they other day had actually 'enhanced' his reputation over the winter... WTF!? I nearly boffed.

enhanced ....from totally farquin useless thunderqunt to farquin useless thunderqunt

Farkin' great stuff.

We're dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomed with a capital DOOM.

What a f*cking waste of money those headhunters were.

Flower seems to have got the job by default. No one else wanted it.

I think Flower will do a good job provided the gin soaked ECB allows him to...suspect he needs to get rid of chronic underperformers and those with heads like boarding house puddings (eg KP), but will he be allowed to do so?

I like beamers management theory, however I'm disgusted as Flower's selection.

EVEN if he does improve England, for 2-3 years (similar to what Duncan Fletcher did between 2002-2005) what we really need to look at is when things start going wrong with Flower in charge, does he have a longterm plan in place to lift us out of another trough like this; if it were to come again?

To me, it doesn't look like his plans are looking ahead 1 week, let alone one year. The return of Michael Vaughan signifies that he is too scared to try a new face at number 3, or to atleast carry on with Ace for a bit longer.

Flower is in it for the short term, grab 300K by next summer, jump ship. Leave his caretaker manager in charge and by then MPV or Piles will be coaching England.



I believe selection is our biggest worry though, I like Cricket, I hate repetition of the sh!t kind. County Cricketers must be setting themselves up for life in the county as not many get an eye in for England anymore. (The even more exclusive super sleep-over best friends Club) TEMESSOBFC=England

Henry wrote:What a f*cking waste of money those headhunters were.

Flower seems to have got the job by default. No one else wanted it.

Is it the fault of them or the ECB that the viable contenders seemed to pull out of the race?

Good Luck to the man though, I hope he has some tactical strategies for an Ashes Series and an away tour of South Africa in the same year. Good Luck with that.


I want to eat humble pie come the end of the 5th Ashes test.


In some strange way I do admire his courage for taking on the England job at such a challenging period in the English Cricket calendar. Still disagree with his selection though.


What is Flower's coaching resume like? Anyone know if he has any head-coaching experience?

Red wrote:

Henry wrote:What a f*cking waste of money those headhunters were.

Flower seems to have got the job by default. No one else wanted it.

Is it the fault of them or the ECB that the viable contenders seemed to pull out of the race?

It's the fault of the ECB for spending thousands of pounds employing these people, only for Hugh Morris to declare that Flower was the favourite all along. If he was the favourite, why did they need these headhunters to conduct a 'thorough search for the best candidate possible' when they were going to stick with the guy who is already in charge?

Typical ECB bullshit.

Trev

How much of 'favourite all along' is spin?

You'd hardly want to hear that 'we had an exhaustive search and found that nobody would touch us with a barge pole so we're stuck with this guy we didn't really want'

It could be worse ...Flower might have been the "headhunter" who got paid squillions to find the perfect candidate and recommended himself ...

Grant Thomas at St Kilda and Neal Fong at the WA Health Department got that sort of deal ....Neal Fong got paid $600000 to recommend himself to a $600000 p.a. job

Not many life forms lower than pond life Thomas

Flower it is, confirmed
http://uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/399657.html

Almost by default, but I wish him well and he deserves a crack at least.

At least we dodged a bullet...

Ashley Giles, was told he lacked sufficient experience, which left him frustrated.

Dello wrote:

Augustus wrote:Now that I think about it, Andy Flower's quite a logical choice. We'll be complimenting a poor group of selectors and a poor captain with a poor coach.

Bit harsh on Strauss. He did all right over the winter.

Agreed. It's not his fault that all our bowlers are arse.

Wow, thats a bolt out of the blue, completely left field. What a great use of potential grass roots money.

That headhunting firm, must have really enhanced their rep through this whole affair.

More mundane, samey, useless, uninspiring, same old same old etc etc cricket and selection to come from England for the foreseeable future.

JKLever wrote:

Ashley Giles, was told he lacked sufficient experience, which left him frustrated.

Which is weird as he's coached a FC team to promotion, while AF's only experience is as a caretaker manager over the winter with England.

Not that I'm endorsing the case for Giles in any way, shape or form.

There were clearly other candidates, but England's convoluted recruitment process slowly knocked each of them down until they had enough justification to pick their yes-man for the role. I think it helps if potential candidates actually feel wanted when you're pursuing them instead of being told that they have to join the line, which begins with Andy FFS Flower FFFFFFS.

Funny how England replace a man who was deemed to be lacking in the experience necessary to coach international class players with a coach who has even less experience. You can cite his playing career, I suppose, but good players don't make good coaches.

Cop out appointment by the ECB and another disaster forthcoming two years down the line.