London [UK], August 16 (ANI): Former England cricketer and current Middlesex batting coach Mark Ramprakash said that no one is more deserving to become the Three Lions’ white-ball coach than Andy Flower, who has had successful coaching stints with England and various T20 franchises in the past.
The recent departure of Mott as England’s white-ball coach after failures to defend both white-ball ICC titles has left a vacancy in one of the most highly-sought roles in world cricket and a host of former players and leading coaches have already had their names linked to the job by cricket media.
Flower’s previous spell in charge of England’s men’s team came between 2009 and 2014. On that occasion, he coached the red-ball side for his entire tenure, but the last three years saw Ashley Giles take the reins of the white-ball teams.
Speaking as quoted by Wisden, Ramprakash said, “In my view, the coach who merits the position is Andy Flower. He’s a deep thinker about the game and I have huge admiration for him.”
“He had great success as England coach before an acrimonious end to his tenure following the 2013/14 Ashes and I think he has reflected well on his experience of being in the spotlight, and how he behaved when under stress.”
“In the years since, he’s shown a lot of flexibility and adapted to different environments, having a lot of success in franchise leagues. He coached Trent Rockets to victory in The Hundred in 2022 and has plenty of experience in the IPL, currently as head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore,” he concluded.
Over these last few years, Ramprakash has had successful coaching stints with Multan Sultans (Pakistan Super League), St Lucia Kings (Caribbean Premier League), RCB (Indian Premier League), Lucknow Super Giants (IPL) etc.
While Ramprakash has backed the former Zimbabwe batter, he feels that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Rob Key may not choose Flower as Mott’s successor since he would first look at captain Jos Buttler, who could not be the captain after the ICC Champions Trophy next year.
“As Key considers his options much will depend on how he views Jos Buttler’s (England skipper) future,” he wrote.
“The relationship between captain and coach is massive – if it doesn’t work, the team is not going to do well. But there’s no guarantee that Buttler is going to be captain after the Champions Trophy next February.”
“If Key takes a short-term view, he may go with a head coach who Buttler gets on well with, such as Kumar Sangakkara. But if he wants to build for the future, there is no more qualified candidate than Flower,” he concluded. (ANI)
