Andy Flower

Andy Flower is a former Zimbabwean professional cricketer who was born on April 28, 1968 in Cape Town (Cape Province), South Africa. He played as wicketkeeper-batsman for them and is considered to be one of the greatest players Zimbabwe has ever produced.

Debut

Flower made his international debut for Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka during the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He played a fine knock of 115* in that match but it went in vain as Zimbabwe lost that match by 3 wickets.

His Test debut also came in the same year.

On October 18, during India’s tour of Zimbabwe, Flower made his debut in the only test match played at Harare. He scored a fifty in the first innings and didn't get to bat much in the second innings of the drawn Test. His brother Grant Flower also made his Test debut in the same match.

Rise to glory

2001 was the best year of his entire career in which with help of his immense ability to play spin, Flower amassed a massive 540 runs during the 2000-01 Test series against India which also included his career best inning of 232* during the second test match at Nagpur.

Later in that year, Flower also played beautiful knocks of 142 and 199* in the first Test match against South Africa at the Harare Sports Club.

Low points

During the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Flower along with his fellow teammate Henry Olonga wore black armbands in a match against Namibia to protest against the then Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's policies for which he was criticized.

Retirement

After the 2003 World Cup, Flower retired from international cricket and went to England to play for Essex in the county cricket just like his brother Grant and they became the first brothers to score first-class centuries in a county game in the same innings against Lancashire later that year.

Coaching career

In 2007, he suffered from an injury and was ruled out from playing for Essex and was offered to become England's assistant coach. So, he retired from professional cricket and took that. He initially worked under Peter Moores but after public falling between Kevin Pietersen and Moores, Flower became the interim coach.

His coaching career was not less than his playing career where he won England two Ashes campaigns; their first global ICC trophy in the form of T20 World Cup in 2010 in the Caribbean; achieved unmatched level of consistent ODI performance helped England whitewash India 4-0 in one of the most anticipated test series of that time and that gained them No.1 spot in the ICC Test rankings.

Records

He is the only Zimbabwean in the ICC's Top 100 All-time Test Batting rankings at number 31 (November 2013), putting him in the company of Brian Lara (ranked 23), Sachin Tendulkar (29), Steve Waugh (equal 31 with Flower on 895 points) and Rahul Dravid (33).

His aggregate score of 341 runs during the first test against South Africa in 2001 is the second highest ever by a batsman on the losing side. His knock of 232* is the highest ever by a wicketkeeper in Tests. Flower’s partnership of 130 with Heath Streak is highest for the 7th wicket in ODIs.