After being taught a cricketing lesson by Australia the Zimbabwean has stepped down.
After a humiliating Ashes tour of Australia, England coach Any Flower has been forced to step down from his position by new managing director Paul Downton, reports the Telegraph.
The Three Lions suffered a 5-0 whitewash in the five-match Test series Down Under in which the side looked like a shadow of the team that beat the Australians 3-0 just six months earlier.
Flower has coached England since 2009 and has guided them to three Ashes victories and a Twenty20 World Cup triumph.
To many the Zimbabwean is the most successful coach of the modern era in English cricket and this news will come as a shock to a lot of people.
The ECB were still denying the rumours about Flower’s future during the most recent defeat to the Baggy Greens – a T20 loss in Melbourne – even though the 45-year-old had a meeting with Downton on Thursday.
He was told in no uncertain terms that he had to step down and one-day coach Ashley Giles has become the favourite to succeed.
Flower’s toxic relationship with batsman Kevin Pietersen may have had something to do with the position and suggests that the South African born cricketer will be staying in the side – if the 33-year-old can rekindle things with captain Alastair Cook.
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