Flower

London: Captain Andrew Strauss and the others have been hailing team director Andy Flower, but the 43-year-old is himself not taking any credit.

As with his batting in 63 Tests and 213 ODIs for Zimbabwe, Flower’s deeds have been doing the talking, while he’s happy in the background.

“It’s a fantastic feeling, becoming No.1 (in Test cricket) is the realisation of a goal... All credit to the players. They, not I, do the hard yards... They’re the ones who take the tough decisions,” Flower told The Telegraph.

Speaking briefly at The Oval on Tuesday afternoon, Flower added: “It’s not for me to take even a bit of credit... The players deserve every ounce of it.”

Asked to comment on England’s biggest challenge now, Flower replied: “That’s an interesting one... I’m not sure, to be honest... To start with, I’m looking for a 4-0 result... I hope there’s no let up in the players’ intensity...

“Once this series is over, we’ll look at fresh goals and work towards them. Going forward, we’ll have to re-focus.”

We can expect Flower to drive his players towards the new goals with the same degree of passion and single-mindedness. He’s a hard task master, after all.