If England seal the deal with Andy Flower, their favoured candidate to replace Brendon McCullum as Test coach, they will find a man transformed from the days when Kevin Pietersen branded him the ‘Mood Hoover’.
Pietersen’s dig was an exaggeration, of course – part of a feud that soured both men’s final days with the Test team during and after the 2013-14 Ashes.
But even Flower will now admit he was too intense during his time with England, telling the Development Squad podcast two years ago that ‘I carry some guilt about harming or hurting people’.
He is also willing to laugh at himself in a way that would be unrecognisable to those who worked under him between 2009 and 2014.
Friends say any mention of quinoa salad, which was part of the much-mocked 82-page list of catering demands sent by England to Australia ahead of the 2013-14 trip, now elicits a smile. There is even talk he has instituted quiz nights for his teams on the T20 circuit.
More significantly, Flower – now 58 – has spent the last few years establishing himself as franchise cricket’s go-to coach, racking up trophies like clubcard points. He steered Multan Sultans to the Pakistan Super League in 2021, Trent Rockets to the Hundred in 2022, Gulf Giants to the ILT20 in 2023 and Royal Challengers Bengaluru to an emotional first IPL title in 2025, before successfully defending it a few months ago.
Andy Flower admits he was too intense during his time with England, telling a podcast two years ago that ‘I carry some guilt about harming or hurting people’
The Zimbabwean (pictured with Alastair Cook after England regained the Ashes in 2009) had enormous success in his first stint as coach
But Kevin Pietersen (right) memorably described Flower as a ‘Mood Hoover’ amid the fallout from the disastrous 2013-14 Ashes
And he has done it all while sticking to his belief that the one-percenters can enhance a cricket team, not weigh it down, even while trusting his gut instinct as much as he does data.
As Nasser Hussain told Sky Sports: ‘If you’re going to keep (Rob) Key (as managing director of the England cricket team), whose attention to detail is not his strongest suit, then below you need to have someone who is absolutely across everything and doesn’t miss a trick. For me, the best person for that would be Andy Flower – by a country mile.’
Even during his playing career, Flower was meticulous. In his early days as a wicketkeeper-batsman for Zimbabwe, he set himself the ambitious goal of rising to the top of the ICC rankings, taking apart his own game like a mechanic and oiling each individual part: speed, power, eyesight, mental toughness. He played squash and tennis with his brother Grant, and trained in jiu jitsu to help his balance.
The strategy paid off. Nine years after his Test debut, in September 2001, during an era that included Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, Flower reached No 1 – the first wicketkeeper to get there – after scoring 142 and 199 not out against a powerful South African attack at Bloemfontein in Zimbabwean totals of 286 and 391.
His personal journey speaks of a hinterland not always associated with professional athletes. A summer in England in his late teens made him realise he had internalised the casual racism of 1980s Zimbabwe, and led him to conclude in an interview in 2011: ‘Unless you are honest in a way that is sometimes uncomfortable, you cannot learn from your mistakes.’
It is a mantra with obvious applications to England’s increasingly blinkered Test set-up. Imagine the possible benefits for Harry Brook, Ben Duckett or Jamie Smith.
Flower (with Virat Kohli and RCB director of cricket Mo Bobat) has won countless trophies on the white-ball franchise circuit in recent years
A man of principle, he wore a black armband at the 2003 World Cup to ‘mourn the death of democracy’ under Robert Mugabe in his homeland
Flower also hit the headlines when he and team-mate Henry Olonga wore black armbands at the start of the 2003 World Cup to ‘mourn the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe’.
Knowing that Robert Mugabe’s regime was likely to retaliate once the tournament was over – Flower was concerned about a staged car crash or being stabbed during a fake mugging – he fled the country, and settled in the UK.
Later, two years into his time with England, he said: ‘We have tried to grow leaders within our unit and that means broadening perspectives and challenging assumptions. It is only when we are forced to look beyond ourselves that we really learn.’
If he gets the job, the days when England’s most adventurous outings were to the nearest golf course may be a thing of the past.
Other names will be mentioned. The former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is suddenly available, having stepped down as coach of Chennai Super Kings after 18 years, and there will be advocates for Mickey Arthur, Kumar Sangakkara, Jonathan Trott and Richard Dawson.
England Lions coach Andrew Flintoff is not understood to be a serious contender.
Other names are in the frame including former England batsman Jonathan Trott, previously the coach of Afghanistan
Andrew Flintoff, however, is not thought to be under consideration for the role
But Flower is the one England want, assuming they can find a way round his affiliations not just with RCB but with London Spirit in the Hundred. And the ECB might have noted an observation Flower made during that podcast chat in 2024.
‘I remember when I left the England job and things were in a state of turmoil because of the whole Kevin Pietersen affair,’ he said. ‘I’ve never felt good about that.
‘If I was placed in that situation again, I wouldn’t do it the same way. I would have to find some way of stabilising everything, of turning the ship around and maybe only then stepping away. I wouldn’t step away and leave an organisation or team in that sort of turmoil again.’
If Flower really does feel he has unfinished business, and would like to off-set life on the relatively faceless T20 circuit with the more meaningful challenge of Test cricket, the benefits could last years.
