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’s 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 country which is followed so passionately in India evokes feelings and gets the best out of any player.
He added that he learnt playing spin from Dave Houghton and watching good players of spin and copying them made him good player of spin which eventually helped him score big against India.
He scored 500 runs in the 2001 series against India and was dismissed only twice. He used his feet against the spinners, and watching great players such as Sachin Tendulkar and Javed Miandad when he was wicketkeeping made him understand how to play spinners. He had developed a good defence as well as could attack spinners and had an average of 52 in Test cricket during 62 Test matches.
He recalled 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. This win was special with his brother Grant scoring a double-hundred along with his 140. This was very important for their nation as it gave a lot of confidence to the team and players individually.
His two hundreds against South Africa of 142 and one 199 not out against top-class attack were special.
When I asked him about his special bonding with his brother Grant, he said they used to both play in the garden of their house and his brother was his best coach 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.
Andy made his ODI debut in the 1992 World Cup and in the first game hit a hundred against Sri Lanka which was so special. 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 the heavyweights. That made them qualify for the Super 8s where they beat South Africa, too, and it was one of 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 fallout with Kevin Pietersen, Andy got the head coach job and did wonders for England. They won three Ashes series — to win Down Under 3-1 was very pleasing as after that England has not managed to win a single game in England. Then came England winning against India 4-0 at home to grab the No. 1 status, but the series win away against India where they came back from behind to win 2-1 was very, very special.
He added another feather to his coaching cap by helping England win the 2010 T20 World Cup which was their first ICC trophy win, and he recalls how they changed their style of playing after losing to England Lions in the UAE and picking two attacking players — Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb — and played a different brand of cricket.
He is now enjoying his stint as coach in franchise cricket. He was not exactly sure how it would go 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 he is learning from each franchise tournament and getting the best out of each team and maximising 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 earlier to Anil Kumble, he said he thanks Kumble for the experience he got from that stint and can’t wait to begin his new innings.
I had to ask him about the big IPL auction coming up on 12th and 13th of this month. He says he is very fortunate that Dr. Goenka — the owner of Lucknow — backed him and made him the head coach and he hope he can carry on the good work. He has been working closely with Dr. Goenka, Raghu Iyer the CEO and consultant Gautam Gambhir for the auction strategy and getting the right people on board for this exciting new franchise
The range of variables which exist in the big auction is quite daunting as all ten teams have to build from scratch like his own team and for him this will be his first experience and he is looking forward to it. 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 make that decision at that time. And there might be a scenario where the shor-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.
