Andy Flower: ICC Hall Of Fame Inductee

[CholeZimbo]

Absolute legend and well deserved. Pity we are not currently benefitting from his knowledge of the game. But one day is one day, hope he will at some point have a stint as a coach. But I am sure a LOT of things would have gone VERY right for that to happen. Congratulations to him. GOAT!

#AppreciationPost

https://www.icc-cricket.com/hall-of-fam ... io/2170500

[sloandog]

The mental toughness this man possessed as a batter alone is incomprehensible. 232 in India today would be considered titanic. He was simply unreal.

If anybody has any stories of the man, lets share them.

I have one.

I had a friend who lived in Harare, moved the Australia in 2004 but grew up in Zimbabwe. He said around 2000, him and his old man went to the sports bar at Harare in the afternoon for a few pints and there was an A game on, against Kenya. He he was drinking a Zambezi and had some food, when he noticed over by castle corner there were two blokes running up and down the stands. He asked the waiter who they were and what they were doing, and he responded it was Andy Flower and his brother Grant. He said they'd had a 3 hour net session, completed 20 laps of the ground and had been running up and down that stand for almost 30 minutes straight. What a sight that must have been. He said it was absolutely piping hot, the bar was packed with the Harare 'old boys' as he used to call them, and you had one of Zimbabwe's greatest ever batters there, in the distance, pushing himself.
I'd have loved to have been 10 years older, just to have been there.

[Jemisi]

[CrimsonAvenger]

The greatest Zimbabwean cricketer. Richly deserved!

[Rajkumar Sharma]

GOAT whose career was cut short by racial politics of Zim

[CholeZimbo]

I was really young when this guy played to really remember any matches. But I am sure the veterans of this forum remember an innings or 2 like how I would remember a legend of my era Brendan Taylor

[ZIMDOGGY]

I was really young when this guy played to really remember any matches. But I am sure the veterans of this forum remember an innings or 2 like how I would remember a legend of my era Brendan Taylor

Andy flower was synonymous with Zim.
The cricketing workd was much smaller, and watching a test match like the ashes for example, youd get live updates on other tests currently happening and scorecards displayed (at least in oz) and Flower was always on the highlighted list where they display notable scores.

And honestly comparing BT to Taylor is ...wow.

Taylor isa great player but he is very hit and miss and always has been. Just a better hit n miss than most.

Flower was not hit or mss, he was a consistent player who made scores and occupied the crease longer than anyone, either coming in as opener or at 3/12 etc

A better comparison is someone like steve smith.

[CholeZimbo]

Argh , nice touch from Andy Flower giving Muzarabani his first cap in the psl "It gives me great pleasure to have a fellow Zimbabwean in the squad"


https://www.instagram.com/stories/bless ... 796585804/

[TapsC2]

I was really young when this guy played to really remember any matches. But I am sure the veterans of this forum remember an innings or 2 like how I would remember a legend of my era Brendan Taylor

Andy flower was synonymous with Zim.
The cricketing workd was much smaller, and watching a test match like the ashes for example, youd get live updates on other tests currently happening and scorecards displayed (at least in oz) and Flower was always on the highlighted list where they display notable scores.

And honestly comparing BT to Taylor is ...wow.

Taylor isa great player but he is very hit and miss and always has been. Just a better hit n miss than most.

Flower was not hit or mss, he was a consistent player who made scores and occupied the crease longer than anyone, either coming in as opener or at 3/12 etc

A better comparison is someone like steve smith.

The BT- Andy Flower comparison will make a great debate one day. Overall it's in no doubt Andy is better but I heard
Pommie once say BT is the greatest ODI player of all time for Zim and the numbers seem to support this.

Their ODI average is about the same at 35. BT has 11 hundreds , Flower had 4. Now I know people will talk about the quality of the opposition but cricinfo breaks it down nicely these days.

Here are some interesting averages

Australia- BT (30.5) Flower (31.9)
Bangladesh- BT (28.8) Flower (45)
England- BT(13) Flower (32.9)
India- BT( 35.7) Flower (40.6)
NZ- BT(74) Flower (33.5)
Pakistan- BT (43.1) Flower (31.6)
South Africa-BT (29.4) Flower (16.1)
Sri Lanka - BT (36.9) Flower (38.3)
West Indies- BT (28.7) Flower (30.5)

BT averages 40 at home, 38.5 in Pakistan, 42 in Sri Lanka, 58,7 in New Zealand and 69.3 in Australia. BT also averages 54 in the games we won and he was playing
, with Flower on 48. Their importance to their teams is just as important

He is definitely not an on and off when it comes to this format for me. The next 3 years will really determine the answer to this question because even though many people will disagree I have a feeling we are about to hit a decent period where we will have a team with more contributors than passengers for first time in maybe 20 years.

BT is looked down upon because the results aren't good although interestingly BT has won 43 ODIs and Flower 59. Some people here will make you believe that the 90s team were serial winners. They lost a lot of games too.

[Robbo]

I remember at Harare against South Africa in 2001 in the first test he kept wicket for 10 hours without conceding a bye (SA 600-3 dec), after an hour with Zimbabwe 51-3 he batted for a combined total of 16...yes 16 hours (142 and 199*). That's almost super human...