LONDON, England (Reuters) – Andy Flower, appointed England director of cricket on Wednesday, was responsible with Zimbabwe team mate Henry Olonga for a startling and unprecedented protest in his team’s opening 2003 World Cup match.
Flower and Olonga took the field against Namibia in Harare on February 10, 2003, wearing black armbands to “mourn the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe”.
“We cannot in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed,” the pair said in a joint statement.
“We are aware hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans may even die in the coming months through a combination of starvation, poverty and AIDS.
“We are aware many people have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their opinions about what is happening in the country. We have heard a torrent of racist, hate speech directed at minority groups.”
Cricket followers had been aware over the previous decade that Flower possessed abundant physical and mental fortitude. Now he had demonstrated equivalent moral courage in the face of intense pressure from the Zimbabwe authorities who threatened to drop him from the squad if he did not abandon his protest.
They were forced to back down when other senior players said they would not take the field if Flower was omitted.
The Wisden almanack called Flower and Olonga’s statement “calm, dignified and lethally clear”.
“Together they were responsible for a shining moment in the game’s history which is already on its way to entering its mythology.”
ZIMBABWE’S BEST
It was, though, the end of the international road for Flower who took his wife and family to England where he played for Essex before joining the national team setup as batting coach and now director of cricket after head coach Peter Moores was sacked before this year’s West Indies tour.
Flower, 40, by some distance the best player produced by Zimbabwe, was always a realist.
“When I started taking cricket seriously, I never actually had a high regard for whatever talent I had,” he told Wisden.
“Seeing the ball, hitting it, there were plenty of other cricketers who did that better than I did. But I thought one area where I could be better than they was to be more determined, more hungry and not give anything away.”
The result of this determination and application was an outstanding player who is statistically the most successful batsman of all Test wicketkeepers.
In 63 Tests the nuggety left-hander averaged 51.54 with 12 centuries and at one stage was ranked the world’s number one batsman.
Keeping to an attack that caught the batsman’s edge less than any other Test team, Flower took 151 catches and effected nine stumpings.
He was the first wicketkeeper to score a century in each innings of a Test, he equalled West Indian Everton Weekes’ record sequence of seven consecutive Test half-centuries and his 232 not out against India is the highest score by a Test wicketkeeper.
An opening batsman in his youth, Flower by hard thought and practice made himself into a consummate player of spin, particularly effective on the Indian sub-continent with both conventional and reverse sweeping.
Remarkably, Flower’s feats with the bat and gloves came while Zimbabwe were in steady decline, winning only seven Tests and 54 one-day internationals during his career.
He also captained his country for 20 Tests but unsurprisingly found the triple burden of principal batsman, wicketkeeper and leader too onerous.
Although Flower’s playing credentials are impeccable and his personal reputation irreproachable, his new job presents different demands.
Flower must balance the political demands which accompany any high-profile job in English sport, the constant media attention and the exhausting schedule of the national team who play more cricket than any other country.
In his favour is a history of overcoming the most daunting of odds.
