Cricket: Andy Flower has, as expected, been named as the new England Team Director. Flower, who had the job on an interim basis for the recent tour of the West Indies, has signed a contract worth around £250,000 per year.
The new coach has a solid pedigree as a player - a former Zimbabwe captain he finished his career with over 4,500 runs at an average of 51, and earned widespread praise during the 2003 World Cup when he and Henry Olonga wore black armbands to signify "the death of democracy in Zimbabwe."
As the England batting coach under the Peter Moores' regime he is known to have impressed the players with his ideas and attitude and earned widespread praise when leading England though a difficult tour of the West Indies. After a collapsing to 51 all out and losing the first test on that tour, England then declared for six straight innings but could not get a victory, as a result England lost the Wisden trophy for the first time since 2000. A disastrous opening to the one day series seemed to take a toll on the team but they bounced back to win the One Day series - a rare victory for England in that format.
Having already built a strong relationship with his captain Andrew Strauss, Flower will now have to solidify his relationship with Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen is known to have lobbied for Flower's dismissal following the tour of India before Christmas and newspaper comments made by the star batsman while in the West Indies led some to question whether Pietersen would continue to be part of the England team.
That will be just one task facing Flower and with the international summer beginning on May 6th he will not have a lot of time to put his plans in place.
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