Former Zimbabwe great Flower named new Maratha Arabians head coach

Dubai: Maratha Arabians on Tuesday named former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower as the new head coach of the franchise ahead of the Abu Dhabi T10 scheduled to be held at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The tournament is being staged under the aegis of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), with official approval of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Flower joins Maratha Arabians after finishing a 12-year stint with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in various capacities with both the English senior men’s team and the High Performance Centre at Loughborough. During his stint as England head coach, Flower led England’s Test side to No 1 in the world, victory at the 2010 World Twenty20 and Ashes success in Australia in 2010-11.

Speaking about his appointment, Flower said: “I have just come off a tremendous run with English cricket and am now looking ahead to the future with hope. Anything that is new and is innovative like T10 cricket always has an automatic appeal. From a coaching perspective it presents new challenges to test yourself against in a world-class environment. I am looking forward to joining forces with some of the world’s best players for Maratha Arabians. I share the enthusiasm of our team owners in building a world-class franchise.”

Maratha Arabians is co-owned by Parvez Khan of Pacific Ventures, Bollywood Actor/Producer/Director Sohail Khan and Ali Tumbi of Aqua Properties.

Meanwhile, former West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo will continue to lead the franchise like in the previous edition. Ahead of the players’ draft on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, the franchise also named their other retentions for the season including Sri Lankan T20I captain Lasith Malinga, apart from the Afghanistan duo of Hazratullah Zazai and Najeebullah Zadran.

Australia’s power-hitting batsman Chris Lynn was named the icon player of the franchise > > Maratha Arabians Co-owner Sohail Khan said: “It is terrific to have a world-class cricketer and coach like Andy (Flower) as our head coach. He is a terrific addition to our squad because he comes with a fantastic track record. I am certain that we will have a perfect finish to our campaign this time around.”