INDIAN CRICKET

IPL: Lucknow franchise names Andy Flower as Head Coach

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After the news of Gautam Gambhir being roped in as mentor of the unnamed Lucknow franchise came to the fore a few days back, in a recent development it has been announced that Andy Flower, former Zimbabwe captain has been appointed as head coach of the new franchise.

The Lucknow and Ahmedabad franchises will debut together in next year’s edition of the IPL. The Lucknow franchise has been purchased by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group for nearly USD 1 million.

RPSG’s owner Sanjiv Goenka is happy with the selection of Andy Flower as head coach.

He stated that Flower has been selected because he has the ethics of professionalism and has left an indelible mark on cricket.

Flower has got a good reputation as a coach as well as a player.

Achievements of Andy Flower as coach

Andy Flower is no newbie to the IPL. He served as an assistant coach for Punjab Kings for two seasons from 2020.

His high pedigree as a coach is known across all formats of cricket. He was the coach when England dominated Test cricket a decade back, securing the No.1 spot in the rankings as well as during the 2010 ICC T20 World Cup where Paul Collingwood’s men were crowned as the champions for the first time.

Flower, after coaching in various roles for the ECB, took to coaching in franchise cricket in 2019 where he has been successful so far.

He led the Multan Sultans to their maiden win in PSL as their coach.

He also took St. Lucia Kings to two consecutive CPL finals in 2020 and 2021.

Recently, he had been appointed as Afghanistan’s consultant in the just-concluded ICC T20 World Cup.

For Andy Flower, “looking after the person” remained his primary job.

When I was with England, we wanted to approach the game differently, and help us as coaches to understand the game to a different depth and breadth, and also help players challenge their understanding of the game.

He further said,

In this last period, it’s an important part of it. But you can never forget that you’re dealing with human beings. One of the most important things I’ve learned in my years of coaching is that looking after the person is more important than developing the player. It’s a really important thing to learn as a coach because it drives how you interact with people, and how you care for them.

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