Andy Flower terms Ashes whitewash “fascinating”
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:19 PM
The 2013/14 Ashes Down Under was best known for the uncompromising menace of Mitchell Johnson, as the Aussie pacer wrecked havoc on the helpless England batsmen. Johnson was simply at the height of his powers in that series and ended up scarring the England batsmen for a really long time. Johnson’s pace and bounce was so lethal that it seemed England had already surrendered the Ashes before the series got accomplished.
Post that series, there were a few harsh steps taken from the ECB’s standpoint. Controversial batsman Kevin Pietersen was axed and hasn’t ever represented England since then. Andy Flower, who was England’s coach for that tour himself, vacated his position after a few weeks. In a recent chat, Flower surprisingly termed that whitewash as a “fascinating” aspect.
“There were hard times during that tour of Australia and some testing times for me and a few others afterwards,” Flower was quoted saying by Daily Mail. “So I don’t have good memories of it but having said that it was still fascinating to be part of. “It was interesting to try to find a way of halting the slide even though we weren’t able to do it. It was fascinating to watch how people were dealing with what we went through and how I dealt with it myself. “Coming out the other side and evaluating why things happened. Hopefully, I’m stronger and wiser for it,” Flower added.
Flower admitted that he would have continued coaching England, had his side won that Ashes. “It fell apart very quickly and much quicker than I hoped,” he said. “Regardless of whether I moved on, I would like to have seen a healthier transition where some senior players stayed and there was a drip-feed of younger ones rather than a complete makeover. “If we’d won that Ashes I would have wanted to carry on, no question.
Flower fully backed current England coach Trevor Bayliss and praised the Australian for his efforts. “Trevor is a very experienced coach and he’s bringing a lot of knowledge to English cricket. “He may give the impression he’s a simple guy from the bush in New South Wales but he has a cricketing wisdom about him and about people and teams. He’s making that count for English cricket.”