The Andy Flower Conspiracy

The media love him as a child, the England players portray him as the new messiah, even Pietersen who hated him only three months ago, and he is the ECB's blue-eyed boy. Yet never has someone done so little to deserve such high regard. Simply put, who gets what in exchange for the made-up love affair that is Andy Flower? It is telling that all the media are on-side; one can only imagine the sheer outrage if such a mediocre quality of coach was set to become the new England football manager. I suppose we went there and did that with Steve McClaren...

I'm prepared to give him a chance, as having watched a fair bit of him he has an excellent cricket brain.

But yes, basically if he is given the job - England will have given the task of lifting Englands poor performance to a rookie in coaching terms.

Andy Flower looks a bit like Peter Moores ....this will not end well.

If it is Flower, at least we'll have a coach who's been there, seen it, done it as a player - unlike the Worcester Reject.

Grant Flower was furious. He was packed and ready to head to England to begin his coaching stint and everything.


Gutted Grant.

So it would now appear to be between Flower and John Wright.

Henry wrote:So it would now appear to be between Flower and John Wright.

Then it has to be Flower - how long has Wright been away from coaching?

He's been coaching at the NZ and Aus academies for the last couple of years.

so glawson is out of the running?

glawson was never entered in the race.

Did Thorpe get into coaching after he retired?

embee wrote:Did Thorpe get into coaching after he retired?

Don't believe so ... and I'm not certain if he even went down that road ...
nevertheless, he's now the new batting 'coach' at Slurrey.

When he went to Dubberland he was supposed to be their batting coach ...not sure if he did anything or not

embee wrote:When he went to Dubberland he was supposed to be their batting coach ...not sure if he did anything or not

Think he returned to the UK and turned his attention to the company he was setting up, did piecemeal work for Sky, and then Slurrey finally announced last Nov that he was to be their batting coach. Tom's (the Air Emu) probably in the know ...

IMO - a great batsman - the quiet man who gets on with things, but am not so sure he's top-coach material.
Hasn't got the arse-kicking instinct ... and is prolly still not yet a distant memory from the dressing room banter.

What about Alec Stewart?

What's he doing?

Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe, and Darren Gough would make excellent England selectors, imo.

I'm not sure Stewart has done much since his retirement other than make maximum use of his Chelsea season ticket.

embee wrote:What about Alec Stewart?

What's he doing?

Still turning out for Sky in immaculate suits, pressed shirts and selective ties (typical Slurrey poofter) ... has voiced his sour 'opinions' (not a Strauss fan) about the WIndies tour in various rags, but other than that, no idea. Again ... IMO ... Not Coach material.

For my money, Naz would fit the bill nicely. Hard man, been there and done it, heart on sleeve, inherited a soft team and moulded them into hard-to-beat test players with his no-nonsense style - but, he's getting good dosh at Sky and has more sense than to accept the poisoned England chalice, especially with his nemesis Clarke as the overall boss!!

It's between 2 men- Flower and Wright. Stewart, Thorpe, Hussain.....They're not gonna get the job, so no point in really talking about the possibility tbh.

IMO Andy Flower is a great batsman/WK and whereas he can impart a fair bit of touring knowledge, he isn't really coach material. He hasn't got that umph that it would require to lift a sagging English team to a different level. With the exception of a few, I think the English team hasn't got the personnel, playing or bench strength, to rattle any of the 4 top teams.

John Wright would be ideal and his experience with Kent (I think it was), should help, although I seriously doubt Wright would take the job, if offered.

Flower's CV must be absolutely shocking. How he can get this job is beyond me.

• Batting coach of one of the worst batting sides in the world.
  
• Temporary head coach during a humiliating Test series loss in which there was a fine example of one of the worst batting sides in the world.
  
• Fluked a series win in ODIs thanks to the West Indies' ineptitude in calculating Duckworth-Lewis; would probably have lost 5-0 otherwise with the way momentum was.

There are literally no positives to think of except that the media like him and he comes across as a jolly nice bloke. He's basically the patsy everyone wants but who will do English cricket no good; the media will get their stories, the ECB will get a man without controversy who will say the right thing.

Maybe once Flower's appointment is confirmed and his signature is on the dotted line, he'll reveal himself to be a controversial, ruthless, non shit taking c*nt.

Or maybe not.

Henry wrote:Maybe once Flower's appointment is confirmed and his signature is on the dotted line, he'll reveal himself to be a controversial, ruthless, non shit taking c*nt.

Or maybe not.

He didn't take the Mugabe shit for long, did he?

I wonder if England need a seperate Coach for each form of the game?


Seems one coach tends to get the ODI players in the Test Team and the 2020 players in the ODI team and the Test Players in the 2020 team.

I wonder if England need a seperate Coach for each form of the game?

Well in a way they already do. I'm pretty sure England's back room staff is the biggest in world cricket- Analysts, psychologists, masseuse's, cock jerkers.....

Henry wrote:

I wonder if England need a seperate Coach for each form of the game?

Well in a way they already do. I'm pretty sure England's back room staff is the biggest in world cricket- Analysts, psychologists, masseuse's, cock jerkers.....

As Thorpey said wryly of the coaching team when they were all backslapping each other after the ODI series win - 'I'm struggling to put names to faces....'