Andy Flower

Andrew Flower (born 28 April 1968) is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and a former cricketer.

As a cricketer, he captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team and is widely regarded as the greatest Zimbabwean cricketer ever and one of the greatest wicket-keeper-batters of all time.

He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for more than 10 years and is, statistically, the greatest batsman the country has produced.

Flower made his international debut in a One Day International against Sri Lanka at New Plymouth, New Zealand, in the 1992 Cricket World Cup.

A good player of spin, he made 550 runs in a Test series against India in 2000/01.

This tally came in just four innings and he was only dismissed twice.

He is one of the few players to score a century on ODI debut and became the first player ever to score a century on ODI debut in a World Cup match.

Flower played 63 Test matches for Zimbabwe, scoring 4,794 runs at an average of 51.54 and taking 151 catches and 9 stumpings, and 213 One Day Internationals, scoring 6,786 runs at an average of 35.34 and taking 141 catches and 32 stumpings.

He holds the Zimbabwean records for the most Test career runs, the highest Test batting average, and most ODI career runs.

During his peak from October to December 2001, Flower was ranked as the best Test batsman in the world.

He was widely acknowledged as the only Zimbabwe batsman of proper test quality in any conditions.

His aggregate score of 341 in the first Test against South Africa in 2001 is the second highest ever by a batsman on the losing side.

Andy Flower is also the only player to score an ODI hundred on debut in a world cup match.

His highest score in ODI cricket which was his 145 he made against India in the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy is also the highest score made by a Zimbabwe player at any tournaments.

Towards the end of his career, Flower achieved international recognition when he and teammate Henry Olonga wore black armbands during the 2003 Cricket World Cup match against Namibia to protest against Robert Mugabe's policies.

He and Olonga released a statement on 10 February, stating in part:

This act led to pressure from Zimbabwe's government and Flower's retirement from Zimbabwean cricket.

He later played an English county cricket season for Essex and an Australian domestic season for South Australia.

On 7 May 2007, Flower was appointed Assistant Coach of the England team, replacing Matthew Maynard.

The Zimbabwean joined up with Peter Moores and the rest of the squad for the first Test match against the West Indies at Lord's on 17 May 2007.

Upon his appointment to this role with the ECB, Flower, having not played that season due to injury, ended his playing spell at Essex, bringing his playing career to a close.

After retirement, he served as the coach of the English cricket team from 2009 to 2014.

On 15 April 2009, following England's Caribbean tour, for which he was installed as interim team director following the departure of Peter Moores, he was appointed full-time team director.

In the Summer of 2009, during his tenure as team director, England won The Ashes, beating Australia by two Test matches to one.

Under his coaching, England won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

Flower became the second foreign coach in the team's history.

Currently, he is the head coach of Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League, St Lucia Kings in the Caribbean Premier League and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

Coach Andrew has also coached Gulf Giant and won the cup with them (23-24) and is still coaching them.

He along with Heath Streak set the record for the highest 7th wicket partnership for Zimbabwe in ODIs (130)

He also has the record for the most matches (149) to score his second ODI ton after scoring a century on debut, when he did it in only in his 150th ODI.

He also holds the record for the highest ever test score posted by a wicketkeeper batsman in an innings of a test (232*).

He is also the first and only wicketkeeper batsman to have a batting average of 50 in test cricket.

Under his tenure, Flower led the Multan Sultans to their first-ever playoffs in the 2020 season.

The Sultans finished first in the league stage but ultimately lost in the preliminaries.

Similarly, he led the Zouks to their first-ever finals appearance in the CPL.

Flower served as assistant coach to Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) for IPL 2020 and 2021 before joining Lucknow Super Giants as the head coach.

In June 2021, he was inducted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and became the first ever Zimbabwean to be inducted into ICC Hall of Fame.

In August 2023, he was appointed as the head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore after his term ended with Lucknow Super Giants.

Flower was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and starting from his high school days at Oriel Boys' High School and Vainona High School played most of his career alongside his younger brother Grant Flower.

He is considered to be one of the best wicket-keeper batsmen of all time, alongside players such as MS Dhoni, Adam Gilchrist, Kumar Sangakkara and Jeff Dujon.