Coach Flower’s out to help Sussex batsmen blossom
Grant Flower says he can’t wait to start helping Sussex’s exciting young batsmen improve their game
Flower arrives at the County Ground as the club’s new batting coach – replacing Jason Swift – with more than a decade of coaching experience at international level behid him.
He joins after two years as batting coach for the Sri Lanka national side. He performed the same role for Pakistan between 2014 and 2019 and Zimbabwe (2010-2014).
Flower’s domestic coaching CV includes stints at Essex and Midwest Rhinos in Zimbabwe.
A distinguished playing career saw him score more than 10,000 runs in 288 international matches.
Zimbabwe’s most capped one-day international player with 221 appearances, his 6,571 ODI runs make him his country’s third-highest runscorer in the format. He is part of a select group with 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in ODIs.
His experience of the English game includes six seasons as a player with Essex from 2005 to 2010, when they won three one-day trophies.
Flower said: “It gives me great pleasure to be added to the Sussex coaching staff and I can’t wait to start. I have been told about the exciting young batters coming through the ranks and am excited to be given the opportunity of hopefully improving them along their journey.
“I always enjoyed playing against the Sharks and admired their professional approach and ultra-competitiveness. Hopefully I can add to that with some of my international coaching experiences and help contribute to make the Sharks batting unit both reliable and exciting.”
Sussex Championship & One-Day head coach Ian Salisbury said: “Grant is a fantastic addition to our staff. I’ve known him since my first trip to Zimbabwe in 1989 and can vouch for his personal qualities, while his coaching and playing record speak for themselves.
“With a young squad in the early stage of their careers, the quality of the coaching set-up is absolutely vital. To add someone with Grant’s track record alongside people like James Kirtley, Sarah
Taylor, Ash Wright and Mike Yardy puts us in a really strong position. I feel humbled to be working alongside this group.
“There have been some challenges over the past year or so, but we’ve got to look forward now. We’ve got a brilliant coaching team in place, the medical and S&C teams are doing great work with the lads’ fitness, we’ve got the marquee going up early in the New Year, so we’re in a great position to now focus on the squad’s cricketing skills as we build up to the start of the season.”
Sussex performance director Keith Greenfield added: “To have such a high quality batting coach with the experience that Grant has come and join us at such a crucial time to help develop our young squad is absolutely fantastic.”
Flower replaces Jason Swift who has decided to leave the club to pursue other opportunities. Sussex said: “We thank him for his time and efforts over the past eight years and wish him the best for the future.”