England look to Flower to bloom
| 12:36 UK time, Monday, 7 May 2007
It is true that in most walks of life, whenever a new boss is appointed, one of the first things they generally like to do is clear out their predecessor's support team and bring in their own staff to replace them.
will do it when he takes over from Tony Blair, and it is no surprise that England's new cricket coach, Peter Moores, has already done it by appointing former Zimbabwe captain as his assistant.
Taken at face value, this would appear to be an excellent first step by Moores, who has the task of reversing the national team's winter decline and, let's be honest when thinking about what matters to England supporters, winning back the Ashes in 2009...
He must be a very persuasive man because it's only 13 days ago that Flower returned from Germany where he received treatment for a hip problem to insist: "At the moment all I'm thinking about is playing."
In Flower, the England players - and the batsmen, in particular - have a man they can respect as an equal, a man who has seen it and done it at the top level. After all, it is only six years ago that he was voted International Cricketer of the Year by his peers in the game.
By taking the England job, Flower has ended a career which brought him more than 16,000 first-class runs at an average of 54. But it is his record as an international cricketer, which shows beyond question that he was a player out of the top drawer.
In 63 Tests for , he made almost 4,800 runs at an average of 51.54, including 12 centuries.
That's a better average than Sunil Gavaskar (51.12), Steve Waugh (51.06), Allan Border (50.56) and Sir Viv Richards (50.23) - and the chances are it would have been even higher if he had not also kept wicket in 55 Tests and been skipper in 20 of them.
Self belief and thorough preparation were two of the hallmarks of his batting and in Sepetmber 2001, he became the first wicket-keeper in history to score two centuries in the same Test by making 142 and 199 not out against South Africa at Harare.
But at that time, there were already signs Flower already had an inclination that coaching might be the path his career in cricket might eventually take.
In an interview for The Independent newspaper, he said: "I remember early on reading up about the psychology of competitive sport and convincing myself that there wasn't a chasm to bridge.
"I heard about Gary Sobers from West Indian psychologist Rudi Webster and how he used to watch the bowlers in the nets, where the release was, where the seam was going. I do that - and also work on balance and depth perception, even the basics of moving forward and back. I could talk for two hours on it."
I doubt his sessions with England's batsmen ahead of the first Test against West Indies on 17 May will include a two-hour lecture, but they know he will certainly have done his homework and will be well advised to listen to every word he says.
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