Andy Flower, the head coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who lost by four wickets to Rajasthan Royals in IPL’s Eliminator last night, has clarified that he never applied for India National Cricket Team’s coaching position.
This follows BCCI releasing an invitation for applications evidencing that they are seeking a new boss for the national team, which was expected earlier this month. However, tenure will commence on July 1, 2024, and end on December 31, 2027.
“I did not apply and I will not,” Andy Flower told journalists after the match. “I am currently happy with my commitment to franchise cricket. I’m into it at the moment. It is just so interesting and I have been really lucky to work with some fantastic organizations and happy about it at present.”
The notion of franchise cricket reflects on Flower’s priorities in recent years where he was deeply involved and gratified as well.
Dinesh Karthik’s Future in Cricket
Flower also addressed questions regarding wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik’s future amidst talks this could be his last season of IPL.
As per ESPNCricinfo prior to IPL 2024 season, Karthik decided that this would be his final one, something demonstrated by Virat Kohli’s post-match emotional hug as well as lap honor performed by RCB crew members.
He has yet to formally announce retirement from professional cricket despite being the tenth-highest scorer in Indian Premier League history having recorded 4842 runs at an average of 26.31 and a strike rate of 135.42 runs in his career over 257 games with Mumbai Indians having scored four centuries including a top score of unbeaten 97.
Karthik has been invaluable to RCB throughout his career with them scoring a total of 937 runs in sixty matches at an average of only twenty-four point sixty-five with a strike rate of 162.95 which includes three half-centuries. This year, he batted in thirteen innings and scored 326 runs (average: 36.22; SR: 187.35) including two fifties and a high-score of 83.
Andy Flower has spoken about how Karthik’s scoring rate has not been affected by his lack of pre-match preparation.
“He hadn’t played much cricket leading into the tournament,” Flower observed about him. “What he has done for us – runs, attitude – it’s been really special from him. I have great regard for that guy. He will be extremely successful in whatever he does next.” According to Flower, “He is already an outstanding commentator, a very good speaker but also, I think he likes the idea of coaching as well — helping others and working with them which doesn’t surprise me at all because I think he would be excellent at it too so when he starts doing that… I suspect there might be more small tournaments along the way.”
Flower suggests that Karthik may no longer feature regularly in IPL but nevertheless still has some prospects if he shifts to being coach or starting a career in commentating in cricket games instead.
