The ECB have suffered a blow after Andy Flower, their preferred choice to replace Brendon McCullum as England’s Test coach, ruled himself out of the running because he is ‘comfortable’ with his existing roles in franchise cricket.
Flower, who coached England between 2009 and 2014, has lucrative gigs with IPL champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru and London Spirit in the Hundred, and told ECB managing director Rob Key that he didn’t believe he could dedicate enough time to the Test role while still doing those jobs.
The focus will now shift to other names on the shortlist, revealed earlier this week by Daily Mail Sport. They include the former Australia coach Justin Langer, who knows the English game from his playing days with Middlesex and Somerset, where he forged a strong relationship with Richard Gould, now the ECB chief executive.
Andy Flower (left) with Virat Kohli and director of cricket Mo Bobat as Royal Challengers Bangalore lift the 2026 Indian Premier League title
Explaining his decision to pull out of the England reckoning, Flower said: ‘The bottom line for me is that I’m very happy in the work that I’m doing at the moment. I work for a couple of really good organisations. I’ve got really good teams and good people around me and I’m really comfortable with that.
‘I’ve worked with England before and I had an amazing time when I had the privilege to be England head coach and represent them as one of their leaders a number of years ago, and I remember those years really fondly. It would be a privilege for me or anyone else to be the Test coach.
‘But for me at this time, I’m really comfortable with what I’m doing. I’m going to stick with doing that.’
Flower, who was also understood to be reluctant to resume a role that brings more scrutiny and stress than the franchise world – as well as less money – added that a job share would have been unworkable.
‘I don’t think I could have done both, especially with the IPL being held during the first couple of months of the English summer,’ he said at the London Spirit media day. ‘If I was England Test coach, I’d like to be here watching and interacting with the people I needed to watch and interact with, so for me, that wasn’t a possibility.
‘We all like clarity. There’ll be lots of debate over who might do the head coach role, but I won’t be part of that debate.’
