Andy Flower rules himself out as Brendon McCullum successor in England Test coach role

The ECB were even open to the idea that Flower could job-share, continuing to work for RCB alongside the England role. But he saw that idea as a non-starter given the tight turnaround between the end of the IPL and the start of England’s home summer, and confirmed when asked by Cricinfo on Friday that he had ruled himself out of contention.

“I have, yes,” Flower said, speaking at Lord’s ahead of the start of the Hundred next week. “I have spoken with the ECB. We’re all aware of the vacancy for the head coach job of the England national team, and I have spoken with Rob [Key] and the ECB on that topic. [But] the bottom line for me is that I’m very happy in the work that I’m doing at the moment.”

Fleming told the New Zealand Herald on Thursday that he had not yet been approached by the ECB but that he was aware of the speculation and was “quite humbled” by it. “I’d 100% give it some consideration, just out of respect,” he said. “If another country thought you could add some value, it’s quite a compliment.”

“Well, I can’t speak for other people and it wouldn’t be right for me to speak for the ECB, obviously,” he said. “They’ll have to make their own judgments on that.

“For me, personally, I don’t think I could have done both, especially with the IPL being held during the first couple of months of the English summer. If I was England Test coach, I’d like to be here [in the UK] watching and interacting with the people I needed to watch and interact with. So for me, that wasn’t a possibility.”

Flower explained that he was “really comfortable” with his status as a franchise coach and had no immediate desire to return to international cricket. “I work for a couple of really good organisations [RCB and London Spirit],” he said. “I’ve got really good teams around me and good people around me, and I’m really comfortable with what I’m doing at the moment.

“I’ve worked with England before and I had an amazing time when I had the privilege to be England head coach and represent England as one of their leaders a number of years ago, and I remember those years really fondly, and it would be a privilege for me or anyone else to be the Test coach. But for me, at this time, I’m really comfortable with what I’m doing; I’m going to stick with doing that.”

Flower, who previously spent five years with Trent Rockets in the Hundred, replaced Langer as London Spirit’s head coach in October. He said that he was happy to “draw a little line” under England speculation and focus on his new job. “We all like clarity,” he said. “Obviously, there’ll be lots of debate over who might do the head coach role, but I won’t be part of that debate.

“People have said some very flattering things actually, over the last week, so that is nice to hear. There’s no doubt we’ve all got an ego. I suppose we’d better perform in the Hundred… We all want to learn and evolve, and I’m no different in that regard. We’re going to throw ourselves into this challenge now.”