ANDY FLOWER

'Andrew "Andy" Flower' (born 28 April, 1968 in Cape Town, South Africa) was an international cricket player for Zimbabwe and now the assistant coach of England. He is considered to be one of the best wicket-keeper batsmen, alongside players such as Australian Adam Gilchrist, South Africa's Mark Boucher and England's Alec Stewart. He made his international debut in a one-day international against Sri Lanka at New Plymouth, New Zealand in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for over 10 years and, according to official statistics, by far the finest batsman the country has ever fielded. A good player of spin, he made 540 runs in a Test series against India in 2000/01. This tally came in just four innings and he was only dismissed twice.
Nearing the end of his career, Flower achieved international recognition (along with team mate Henry Olonga) in 2003 by wearing a black armband in a Cricket World Cup match to protest against the policies of Zimbabwe's government, led by Robert Mugabe. He and Olonga released a statement on 10 February, stating in part:

This act led to pressure from Zimbabwe's government and Flower's retirement from Zimbabwean cricket. Flower had always been a keen student of Zimbabwean history, and is now arguably a significant part of that subject. He later played an English county cricket season for Essex and an Australian domestic season for South Australia.
Flower played 63 Test matches for Zimbabwe, scoring 4,794 runs at an average of 51.54 and taking 151 catches and 9 stumpings, and 213 one-day internationals, scoring 6,786 runs at an average of 35.34 and taking 141 catches and 32 stumpings. He holds the Zimbawean records for the most Test career runs, the highest Test batting average, and most ODI career runs. He is the only Zimbabwean in the ICC's Top 100 All-time Test Batting rankings at Number 24, putting him in the company of Brian Lara (ranked 19), Sachin Tendulkar (20), Steve Waugh (23) and Rahul Dravid (25 in September 2006).
On 7 May 2007 Andy was appointed Assistant Coach of the England team replacing Matthew Maynard. Andy Flower will join up with Peter Moores and the rest of the squad for the first test match against the West Indies at Lord's on 17 May 2007. Upon his appointment to this role with the ECB, Flower, having not played yet this season due to injury, ended his playing spell at Essex, bringing his playing career to a close. This has left him stranded on 49 first class centuries, so whether he will still play the occasional first class match for M.C.C. in order to try to reach his landmark remains to be seen.

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★ Full text of Olonga and Flower's World Cup protest statement