Posts tagged with ‘Andy Flower’

With Joe Denly being the latest England cricketer injured during a football warmup, you wonder just what is going on. England’s disastrous first morning in the Ashes Test at Headingley was prompted by an injury to Matt Prior, yet they do not seem to have learnt their lesson.

The England management, beginning with Andrew Strauss have been very careful to highlight that the Ashes win is only one milestone along the road to Test domination. And rightly so. So how do England continue to build from this point onwards? Where can they improve? And how do they cope with the loss of Flintoff?

Whilst everyone ponders who the key man was for England in the Ashes, and most would probably go for Andrew Strauss, let’s take a moment to think about the contribution of their recently appointed team director.

England have won the Ashes, and the nation rejoices and 2005 can now finally be looked upon as a fond memory. But, as we celebrate, England must learn the lesson from their previous triumph over Australia – don’t get carried away.

If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard the phrase “an Ashes series is no time to try new players” I’d be following the cricket from a small island in the Pacific somewhere. Why is it that all-England (by which I mean our media, who speak the words that we don’t have the wit to think of for ourselves) are so convinced of this?

Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower will be pushing for a say in decisions about England’s contracted players appearing in the IPL. Much fuss is still being made over the injuries to KP and Flintoff in relation to their involvement in South Africa earlier this year.