Best of SPIN: The making of Andy Flower

First published in the May 2009 issue of SPIN magazine

Interviews with Grant Flower (brother), Henry Olonga (Zimbabwe team-mate), Ronnie Irani (Essex skipper) and Roger Newman (mid-90s Oxford University director of cricket who gave Flower his first job in coaching) by George Dobell

Grant Flower We started out together in the back garden. I’m two-and-a-half years younger and spent a fair amount of those years bowling at him. There was never much coaching, so we had to fend for ourselves. Our dad was a big influence, though. He instilled the idea that we had to work hard, though it pretty much only extended to the sports field. We were always much more orientated towards sports than school work.

Roger Newman I got to know him when he played for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham League in the mid-’90s. He was overseas player and I was chairman of cricket. There was an incident that struck me very early on. After getting himself out for about 70 to a poor shot, he went into the dressing room, looked into the mirror for some time and then spat into it. He was so disgusted with himself.

GF Andy was training to be an accountant. It wasn’t until he after he had spent a year playing in the Birmingham League that he considered taking up cricket professionally. It was a very important time. There’s a bit of pressure on you if you’re the overseas pro; you’re expected to bat through and win games. I think it helped him mature and realise what a good player he could be. He also realised how much he enjoyed playing cricket and how many opportunities there are for professionals here.

Henry Olonga As a player, he led by example. I made my Test debut under Andy’s captaincy [in 1995]. I was only 18 and, no thanks to me, the game saw Zimbabwe win their first-ever Test, against Pakistan. Andy scored 150 in that game, as well as keeping wicket and captaining.

GF Our stand (of 239) against Pakistan – a record stand for brothers in Test cricket – is certainly the highlight of my career and I know it’s special to Andy as well. But there were times when we really struggled as a side. There was a Test against South Africa [in 2001] where Andy scored a hundred in each innings [142 and an unbeaten 199] but we still lost by nine wickets. It really doesn’t say much for the rest of us, does it?

HO His method? Hard work. There’s no magic. He’s not the most talented player in the world, but he had unbelievable levels of concentration, he was very fit and he worked harder than anyone.

Ronnie Irani I first came across Andy on England’s tour to Zimbabwe in 1996. That was the ‘we bloody murdered them’ tour. He was by far their best player and we were punished for underestimating them. We didn’t give him, or their team, enough respect and he proved us wrong.

GF England were a bit patronising towards us; particularly [coach] David Lloyd. But it did us a favour, really. We were spurred on as a group of players. It suited us to be the underdogs. Andy used that to inspire him.

RI He’s a thinking cricketer. Remember that last Test, when we should have won, but they kept bowling wide and the scores ended level? I bet that was his idea. It wasn’t against the rules at the time and it saved them the game.

RN I was director of cricket at Oxford University and asked Andy to be the coach. He was 28 by then. He had been playing Test cricket for four years but no county had come in with the offer of a contract. Andy was going to come over and play as a league pro again. But we gave him the opportunity at Oxford. Why did I pick him? Well, I thought he would know what it was like to be the underdogs. He was used to being in a team that had to punch above its weight.

GF His best innings? He scored a double-century against India in Nagpur [in 2000] when the ball was turning square. He attacked them and reversed the pressure. It was a top innings and saved the Test. As a batsman he was up there with the very best.

HO To become the No 1 rated batsman in the world is an extraordinary achievement for a guy playing in a struggling team. Those two hundreds in a Test came against a really fiery South African attack. And we still lost heavily. He was outstanding in India, too. He dominated against their spinners, on their pitches, and made himself into a superb player of spin bowling.

GF I don’t think all those hours of facing my bowling in the garden helped much. Let’s face it, it’s not as if I turn it. He just did a lot of extra work. He used to get guys to bowl at him on dry parts of the outfield so he could practise against the turning ball.

RI We – England – had no answer to his batting. He could play every sweep possible and there was nothing we could do to stop him. He was technically fantastic and an absolute rock in terms of concentration. 

RN We didn’t have the strongest Oxford side. Only Mark Wagh and James Averis went on to enjoy careers in the game. But, thanks to a good team spirit, we beat Duncan Fletcher’s Glamorgan the year that they won the championship. We were set about 275 in 57 overs and people assumed we wouldn’t go for it. But Andy said, ‘We’re going for them and we’re going to get them.’ And we did. We won by five wickets. He had such authority that everyone believed him when he spoke like that.

HO As a player he just kept improving. I remember when we used to train as a team and net sessions would end and we’d all go. But he and Grant would just keep going. He set the benchmark for professionalism.

GF He was always stubborn. Incredibly stubborn. I’m sure that helped him become such a determined batsman.

RI It was Graham Gooch’s idea to bring him to Essex [in 2002] and it was an absolute inspiration. He’s as a good an overseas player as the club has ever had – up there with Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Ken McEwan. Gooch knew that Andy was a fighter and he knew he was a winner. We saw him as an all-rounder who could bat at three or four and keep wicket while James Foster was away at university.

GF He was a very tidy ’keeper. Obviously there were times when the work load of batting, captaining and keeping wicket became hard, but it was the way he liked it. He became No 1 in the world when he was doing all three. He loved to be involved in the game and he felt that watching the ball out of the bowler’s hand helped him keep his eye in. He really missed it when Tatenda Taibu took over.

RI He’s underestimated as a wicketkeeper. He was top class. Really, he was as good as anyone I played with or against, including Jack Russell. Ask Gooch; he’d agree with me: Standing back he could catch pigeons and his work standing up to my bowling was the reason I was called back into the England team [in 2002]. Without him, I’d never have got back into international cricket.

HO With England, he’ll be particularly strong on fitness and mental toughness. As those are areas that England have been quite weak, you might see quite rapid improvement. He’ll give one or two of those England players a bit of a wake-up call.

RI Lots of overseas players work very hard on their own games. Andy probably took that to a new level, but the real difference with Andy was what he did off the pitch at Essex. He was the perfect team man, always thinking about other people and helping them with their games. He threw himself into club life and his team ethic was second to none. There was no talk of him coaching before he joined us, but he went to work with the youngsters straight away. Undoubtedly the likes of Ravi Bopara, Ali Cook, James Foster owe him a hell of a lot. 

RN He worked incredibly hard and hated losing. Once at Oxford, after we had been easily beaten by Nottinghamshire, someone suggested a game of football between the sides. We lost again, about 4-0, and then all went to have a shower with the thought of heading home. But Andy had other ideas: he sat everyone down to dissect the game of football. He was unhappy about the lack of effort from some of the guys. ‘It’s only a game,’ one of them said. ‘You don’t get it,’ Andy said. ‘It’s about winning. You must never, never accept losing.’ That was the mentality he took to his cricket.

RI He could adapt to any situation. If you wanted to someone to grind out a hundred to save a game, then he was your man. But if you needed someone to smash 100 in 70 balls, he could do that, too.

GF People will know where they stand with Andy. He was brought up to be honest and he’s not afraid of speaking his mind.

RN He had a game against the MCC coming up and wanted some extra practise. There was no-one else around so I bowled to him. After a while he asked me to bowl from 18 yards. Then 15. And then 10. He wanted to replicate the pace of professional bowlers. After an hour or so, I was exhausted. ‘How much more?’ I asked him. ‘Just another hour,’ he said. What other people thought of as hard work, he thought of as a warm-up.

RI He will insist the players are very fit, and quite rightly. But I don’t think he is as fanatical about that as some are suggesting. It’s winners he’ll want most, so he’ll be looking for guys with the right skills; not just guys who can run marathons or the 100 metres in 11 seconds.

GF We were always very keen to be the fittest we could be. We figured that, if we were fitter than the guys we played against, we’d have an advantage. And, later on, we thought we should set an example to our team-mates. We always tried to work a bit harder than the rest. He won’t take any excuses over poor fitness. How can there be any? There have all the time and all the support, in terms of physios and trainers, that anyone could need.

RI He’s old school. He lives, breathes and talks cricket. He was always happy to talk to the opposition at the end of a game and offer them any advice he could. The England boys will learn a lot just by talking to him.

HO The way he stood up to Robert Mugabe should demand the instant respect of every England cricketer. But then there’s his record as a player. That should demand instant respect from all England players, too. And he’s a nice guy. He’s the whole package. They’re lucky to have him.

RI He doesn’t suffer fools. He puts the mileage in and he expects others to do the same. The England squad will soon find out that he will not tolerate any slacking.

HO He wasn’t a naturally political person. He was drawn into the black armband protest [against President Mugabe, at the 2003 World Cup] by a combination of frustration and patriotism. If you’d asked him about politics only a few years previously, he would have said, ‘I’m a sportsman; all I want to do is play cricket.’ But it hurt him to see our country falling apart and our to see the demise of our sport. He watched the farm invasions and the economy collapsing and he felt he had to do something. He’s a true patriot.

GF It was a huge decision to stop playing for Zimbabwe and leave the country that we love. We talked about it a lot, but it was probably harder for him as he had a young family. Life isn’t ideal, though, and we were very lucky to be able to play county cricket.

RI He’s a streetwise coach, very good at identifying talent. He won’t just judge on playing ability; he’s a big believer in character. He’ll look them in the eye and decide whether they’re up to it under pressure.

HO Andy approached me with the idea for the black armband protest, because I was the senior black player.

GF I wanted to join in the black armband protest. I spoke to Andy and Henry about it, but they felt it would be more powerful if it was one white guy and one black guy. There were several white guys prepared to do it, but only one black guy. It took a lot of guts.

HO We informed the rest of the team on the morning of the game. Andy called a team meeting about an hour before the start. We had released a statement to a friend of ours in the media, Geoff Dean of The Times, so there was no going back. Vince Hogg, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe cricket board, implored us not to go ahead with it. He warned us that we were putting ourselves in danger. But we knew the risks. We knew we could be in danger and Andy knew it was the end of his international career.

GF He comes from an environment where you are brought up to speak your mind and keep things simple. His mental strength is one of his strongest characteristics. You can see it in the way he has pursued his career.

HO Maybe I was a bit naive. I knew there’d be some reaction, but the anger did take me a bit by surprise. I received some nasty emails and then was tipped off that the police were gunning for me. I left the country and I haven’t been back. It will be interesting if Andy has to go back to Zimbabwe as coach of England. He’s a British citizen now, so I presume he’ll be safe. But there’s radical element out there that is still mad at us.

RI He’ll know which coaches he wants. I’ve no idea who he plans in bring in, but he worked well with Darren Gough at Essex and I’d love to see them together again.

HO Ten years on, I’d like to think that all our team-mates would say ‘Good on you.’ They weren’t all supportive at the time – one has been very derogatory – but I think most of them would reflect on everything that has happened and at least understand why we did it. Our intentions were good.

GF I’m proud of him and I know he’ll give the job his best shot. But if it doesn’t work out, he’ll dust himself down and move on. He’s very strong mentally.

RN Andy is a loyal person and he was right behind Peter Moores. I imagine he thought a great deal about walking away from England, as he didn’t want to be seen from benefiting from Moores’ departure.

RI I just hope they allow him to make the important decisions. There are quite a lot of people involved with the management of the England team and I’m not sure what they all do. They’ve picked the right man in Andy; now they need to back him.

HO He has changed. He’s matured gracefully and he’s become a much more rounded man. He’s experienced a bit more than cricket and it’s made him wiser. I just hope they give him time. England have lost a lot of their best players in quite a short space of time and they need to rebuild. They couldn’t quite finish off the West Indies in a couple of games, but at least they got in a position to win. Andy will take them the extra mile to win those games.

GF I am slightly concerned about the press in England. They are relentless and there’s a bit of the tall poppy syndrome. But Andy can look after himself. He’ll be honest and most people respect that. He was a bit unsure whether he wanted the job ahead of the West Indies tour, but he enjoyed it very much and was very keen afterwards. I think he’d always have had some regret if he hadn’t accepted the job now.

RI He’s the right man for the job. If he had been allowed to have both hands on the reins over the winter, I’m sure England would have done much better. He’ll still only be as good as the cards he’s dealt, but I believe that, under Andy Flower, England can win the Ashes.

RN He has his work cut out as England coach. I hope he is given the authority to go with the responsibility. All I can say is that, when things are tough and everything looks hopeless in cricket, there’s no-one I’d want beside me more than Andy Flower.

HO Kevin Pietersen can look up to Andy as a coach. I’m not sure you could say that about Peter Moores, could you? You  can imagine Pietersen asking Andy to show him how to play the sweep; he wouldn’t have done that with Moores, would he? Andy is a nice guy, a decorated cricketer and a qualified coach; what more do you want? England have got themselves a good man.

Andrew Strauss: ‘We’d be mad to be satisfied by Ashes win’

Andrew Strauss puts the Ashes win in perspective in his interview in the special 2009 Review issue of SPIN, which is in shops from Friday November 27.

SPIN: You’re very feet-on-the-ground about the Ashes win, aren’t you?  There’s no triumphalism – you feel it was the start of something rather than the end-goal…

Andrew Strauss: It has to be. Look at our world ranking and look where Australia are. Anyone who thinks that we’ve achieved our life goal would be… mad. Quite frankly.

But it is the life goal of every English cricketer to win the Ashes…

Well, it is, but…

So it would be a reasonable reaction to think ‘job done’…

Exactly. It’s so important to our country: the history, the tradition, the rivalry. But in pure cricketing terms at the moment, there are bigger challenges for us. We may not have the same euphoria if we win in South Africa, but it’s a bigger challenge. I personally think it’s sad that the England team has never been the No 1 team in the world for any extended period of time, certainly in one- day cricket. And we’re going to be taking as many steps as we can to make sure we get somewhere near that.

To England fans, the 6-1 NatWest Series defeat to Australia after the Ashes may have looked similar to the 5-0 thrashing your side took against Sri Lanka in 2006. Has there been any progress at all? Did the two series feel any different to you?

Well, some of the traits were similar. At that time [2006] we had a pretty good Test side but we were experimenting with one-day players: Tim Bresnan and a couple of other players came in for that Sri Lanka series probably when they weren’t quite ready. This time, we are maybe a bit more settled as a side. But when you’re losing like that it makes you reassess what you’re doing as a side. Myself and Andy Flower have a number of areas that we feel we have to improve upon if we want to compete with some of these teams away from home as well as at home in the future. And the Australian defeat was really a catalyst for us to start putting some of those plans into action…

Writing in SPIN, Eoin Morgan said that defeat gave England a new carefree, nothing-to-lose  approach to their batting. He used the phrase ‘hell-for-leather’…

Well, there’s a number of things we’re looking to do, some of which we haven’t spoken to the players about yet, actually. But that attacking intent is a good one, away from home in particular. To live with the likes of India and some of these teams you have to play that way. But at the same time, you can’t use that as a crutch: ‘I got out but at least I played my shots’. We need to be more consistent as a batting unit, so we need to improve our skills. If we want to be more attacking and more consistent, our skills need to improve a lot. 

Andrew Strauss’ book, Testing Times – In Pursuit of the Ashes’ is published by Hodder and is in shops now. This is an extract from an interview in the Christmas issue of SPIN, also featuring Stuart Broad, Michael Vaughan, Garry Sobers, Viv Richards and the debut of Andy Caddick as our hard-hitting star columnist – as well as our now-traditional Top 50 countdown of the year.

Coach Andy Flower: the secret history

The man who gave Andy Flower his first job in coaching has been speaking exclusively to spincricket.com about the new England team director.

Roger Newman was director of cricket at Oxford University in 1997 and appointed the Zimbabwean keeper-batsman as the student side’s head coach.

Under Flower, the team went on to beat Duncan Fletcher’s Glamorgan side, months before they won the county championship. 

Flower had first got involved in coaching back in 1995 – again at Newman’s behest. “Andy was playing as a pro for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham league - he’d been recommended to the club by his Zimbabwe team-mate Dave Houghton who had been the pro the previous year,” recalls Newman.

“At that point I was coaching Warwickshire under-17s and I asked him if he’d like to come and do some part-time work for me. He struck up an instant rapport with the lads and showed immediately the sort of qualities he shows now: his ability to relate to people and he had a very good knowledge of the game. 

“Then in 1996, I was asked to be director of cricket at Oxford and I appointed Andy as our head coach for 1997. Apart from Mark Wagh, our captain, James Averis was the only other player who went on to play professional cricket. It was a very young, inexperienced team – but I think Andy’s time with Zimbabwe had showed him that if you work together as a team and have a common goal, the sum of the parts is much stronger than the individual abilities. 

“I know Andy always refers to that win over Glamorgan as one of his happiest moments in cricket.

“Andy was 28 by the time he came to Oxford. He had been playing Test cricket for four years but no county had come in with the offer of a contract. Andy was going to come over and play as a league pro again. But we gave him the opportunity at Oxford and he didn’t play in 1997.

Offering clues as to how a Flower-led England side would be organised, Newman went on. “Andy realised the importance of working as a team: it was a similar situation to Zimbabwe: we were always going to be the underdogs. That was one of the reasons I chose him. He was used to being in a team that had to punch above its weight. 

“Andy stressed to everybody the importance of the whole team pulling together both on and off the pitch. The Varsity match at Lords’ was drawn - Ed Smith played for Cambridge - but that was a fantastic moment for Andy: to walk into Lord’s as head coach of Oxford University. 

“Andy insisted on a very professional attitude, even though the team were part-timers. He said to them once that they were profesisonal cricketers who happened to be students. Everybody responded to him. At least half the team scored their maiden first-class fifties that season. We played 11 first-class matches; it was the last-ever season when university cricket was taken seriously, I think. 

“After we lost to Notts, we played them at football on the outfield – and lost 4-0. Andy gave the team a good talking to after that. People were going, ‘Come on, it’s only football.’ Andy said: ‘It’s not about football, it’s about winning.’

“Against Durham, we were facing defeat and our last man, James Bull, had a broken hand. He’d told the others he couldn’t bat but Andy said to him,’Come on, you’ve got another hand’, it was different. Out of respect for Andy, James said he would go in and have a go.

“Andy’s belief was that you had to be technically sound – which comes from practice – but you also needed good cricket awareness, tactically, plus the ability to want to succeed: mental toughness, the will to work hard.

“Provided he’s allowed to do the job the way he wants to – and I’m sure the ECB will allow him the control he wants –  I have no doubt Andy can put together a team who meet all three requirements: he has an ability to spot people who are technically good and to make them better. He has the ability to improve them tactically - how to control matches whether you’re batting or fielding - and he will only accept people who really have the will to work 100 per cent at their game at all times.

“Andy has experience, enthusiasm and expertise. This is the best appointment the ECB has made in a senior position in cricket for many years.”

Andy Flower confirmed as England coach

Andy Flower will oversee England’s attempt to win back the Ashes, after the ECB confirmed his appointment as coach this afternoon.

Flower, who has been assistant coach since May 2007, takes the top job three months after the sacking of previous coach Peter Moores.

It is Flower’s first head coach role. “We have every belief that Andy has the potential to become a world-class coach,” said England MD Hugh Morris, in response  to questions about Flower’s lack of experience. “We believe we have the right man to do the best job for England.

“I am delighted that Andy has accepted the role.

“I had the privilege of seeing Andy work with the England team during the recent Caribbean tour and he impressed not only me but also the players, the backroom staff, management and the ECB officials who were out there.

“He is a man of great cricketing pedigree as well as a man of unquestionable integrity. He will provide the outstanding leadership that England require as we embark on this most exciting and challenging of years.”

Morris said that the ECB had received 30 applicants for the job, but would not confirm how many of them had been interviewed. 

Of his coaching philosophy, Flower, who is 40, said: “I think I’m honest and fairly open; I’d like to see an ethos of constant improvement in our side. As for any details on our strategy moving forward, I’ve obviously only just taken on the role, so those will have to wait.

“The relationship with the captain is very important. I respect Andrew Strauss. I think he’s a very good cricketer and a very good captain - so we’re starting on the right note.”

Having played 63 Tests for Zimbabwe, the last in 2002, Flower became assistant coach to then-England boss Peter Moores in 2007. He had already spent two winters working as a specialist batting coach with the ECB Academy. 

Under Moores, England lost their six-year unbeaten home record and lost four Test series out of seven. Flower took over as, effectively, a caretaker head coach for the recent West Indies series, after the January sacking of Moores. The 1-0 defeat in the Caribbean continued England’s poor run, though Flower and new skipper Andrew Strauss struck up a good working relationship that the ECB have decided offers the best way forward for the team. 

Cynics will say that the ECB’s hand has been forced: the head-hunting agency appointed to find the new coach has found the leading lights of world cricket less than keen to get involved with the England job. John Buchanan, Tom Moody and Graham Ford all opted out of the race while South Africa coach Mickey Arthur was apparently approached only belatedly, after he had signed a new contract with South Africa.

Flower, once ranked the world’s No 1 batsman, is highly rated as a specialist batting coach. Though he has never been head coach of a club or national team, he also brings the advantages of his recent experience as a top-flight player as well as his background with Zimbabwe, where an under-rated team punched above their weight to produce some outstanding results, after achieving Test status in the early 1990s.

‘I pick the team but the captain is the leader’

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South Africa coach Mickey Arthur has been speaking exclusively to SPIN about his coaching methods.

Arthur, who has recently been approached in connection with the vacant England coaching job, has just signed a new three-year contract with South Africa. He told SPIN “I’m very happy with South Africa. I love every minute of the job I do. I’m thoroughly enjoying it at the moment.”

But with Tom Moody and Graham Ford having counted themselves out of the running, the ECB’s short-list is getting ever shorter. And Arthur, who, with skipper Graeme Smith, has made South Africa the No 1 ODI team in the world, may become an increasingly attractive proposition.

Arthur’s team has registered series wins in England and Australia over the last nine months. Beyond caretaker coach Andy Flower and ex-India boss John Wright, Arthur is one of the few remaining candidates.

His interview, with SPIN’s Wayne Veysey, provides some intriguing clues as to how he would run the England team. It appears in full in the April issue of SPIN, on news-stands now, or available from the SPIN shop. The following is an extract.

SPIN: Who is the boss? The captain or the coach?
Mickey Arthur: I’m a big believer that the captain is still the leader. They both lead in their own jobs: the captain on the field and the coach off the field. All off-field activities in terms of preparation are my area. Then Graeme takes over the team meeting the night before a game and I will back him up. So we know exactly where we stand. 

On tour we will meet virtually every day to decide what we’re going to do and who is going to say what. It’s vital that we don’t contradict each other. Coaches can over-complicate issues. Coaches can be too technical. What I have done is try and create the environment for our players to perform by giving them stability in their jobs and consistency in what we tell them.

How should a captain- coach relationship work?
They must sit down and formulate the brand of cricket that they want the team to play and to pick the personnel to implement the brand. Graeme and I thrashed out our thoughts on cricket and we felt exactly the same. I’m a firm believer in the captain and coach having the same philosophy and sharing the same methods so not to confuse the players. We both wanted our team to take the game forward, to play without fear. Previous South African teams had been too tentative in their approach.

How do you motivate the team’s batsmen?
I like the guys to take responsibility as a group. In every Test we ask the top six to get 300 runs in the first innings. That is their job. It takes the ‘I’ out of the group. As a top six they are working as a team. When players have clarity, you get accountability and performance. There are a lot of slogans in the dressing room and they get a document saying, ‘I am responsible for these runs.’

And the bowlers?
We encourage the bowlers to strive for 20 wickets. They are each given specific roles. We have three attacking bowlers – Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel. As a unit they are all different. Dale is skiddy and swings it out at pace; Morne is tall and gets bounce; Ntini comes in at you from wide on the crease. They are different forms of attack. 

The holding roles are done by Paul Harris and Jacques Kallis. They are a bit more defensive. I need a spinner and Kallis to hold the game. Dale is our spearhead. He is the go-to man. At most times we are looking for him to strike. Ntini and Morne to a degree have the same responsibility.

Should the coach select the players?
I am one of four selectors. I sit on the panel and so does Graeme. I’m asked for my opinion on the squad. I don’t have a vote on the squad but I feature very strongly in discussions. Once the squad is selected, I become the sole selector at home and abroad. At home you are always with the convenor [chief selector]. 

Abroad, I become the sole selector. Graeme and I have a lot of discussion but ultimately we are always on the same page. We have never had conflict. Because we share the same philosophy, selecting becomes an easy thing.

How far ahead do you plan?
All good teams look ahead. We have our eye on succession planning. We identified JP Duminy two years ago as our next best batsman. He has been travelling with us for two years in Test cricket as a member of the squad and been playing one-day international cricket. It has been no fluke. We deliberately brought him through two years with that in mind. 

We have got a young quick bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe who is the future. In terms of all-rounders Albie Morkel could be a Test all-rounder. I think he could be. Imran Tahir could be the missing piece. He could enable us to play two spinners on the sub-continent.

And finally… Are you interested in becoming England coach?
I will never say never. But I have just signed a three-year contract and I’m very happy with South Africa. I love every minute of the job I do. I’m thoroughly enjoying it at the moment.

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