Grant Flower - a short biography
Major teams: Zimbabwe (since 1989/90), Mashonaland Under-25 (1993/94- 1995/96), Mashonaland (1996/97- )
John Ward
22-Sep-1999
Full Name: Grant William Flower
Born: 20 December 1970, Salisbury (now Harare)
Major teams: Zimbabwe (since 1989/90), Mashonaland Under-25
(1993/94- 1995/96), Mashonaland (1996/97- ). Present club team:
Old Georgians
Known as: Grant Flower. Nickname 'Gobby', from when he was the
youngest player in the side
Batting Style: Right Hand Opening Bat
Bowling Style: Slow Left Arm Spinner
Occupation: Professional Cricketer
First-class debut: Zimbabwe v England A, at Queens Sports Club
(Bulawayo), 10 March 1990
Test Debut: Inaugural Test v India, at Harare Sports Club,
1992/93
ODI Debut: 15 October 1992, v India, Harare Sports Club
BIOGRAPHY (updated September 1999)
Grant Flower currently holds a unique position in Zimbabwe
cricket. He is the country's one tried and tested opening
batsman, an anchorman capable of stabilising the innings and
batting for hours on end. Although he sees it as an important
part of his job to prepare the way for such strokemakers as his
brother Andy, Alistair Campbell and Murray Goodwin, the
importance of his role should never be underestimated. It never
is by his team-mates, who also rate him as one of the best
all-round fielders in the world. Although generally seen in the
gully, he is superb in any position, and in the series against
England his great friend Alistair Campbell used him as a
trouble-shooter, placing him, especially in the one-day matches,
wherever the action was, knowing that he was the ideal fielder
for the job.
Grant is the youngest son (he is followed by a daughter) of Bill
Flower, himself a fine cricketer in the past and now one of
Zimbabwe's leading schoolboy coaches. Naturally he grew up with
a strong sporting background, and he names his father as the
major influence throughout his career. His family moved to
Johannesburg when he was still very young, and his first cricket
was played there at about the age of five. When he was about
eight, the family moved back to Harare where they have lived ever
since. Grant, along with his brother Andy, attended North Park
School, which regularly produced strong teams in those days, and
they soon established themselves as the best players in their age
groups. As he had started school later in South Africa, Grant
was always playing sport at a year above his class level, which
was not easy.
He matured quickly, though, as both batsman and bowler, although
he bowled seamers in those days. He was then as much a bowler as
a batsman, and his accuracy in particular earned him numerous
wickets. He changed to spin while at high school, feeling that
he did not have the build for a seam bowler. He was primarily a
rather dogged middle-order batsman at that time, an accumulator
rather than a strokeplayer. He joined the Eagles inter-schools
holiday cricket programme, where he scored what was probably his
first century, now opening the innings. After reaching his fifty
he suddenly decided to improvise and played some superb strokes
on his way to his century. In his final year he captained a
Harare Schools team at the national primary schools week, where
he scored another century, one or two fifties, and his team won
all their matches handsomely. He was a natural selection for the
Partridges team.
At St George's College, he continued to make the representative
teams, being selected for the Fawns while in Form 2 and the
national schools team during his final two years at school. He
had actually attended practices and played for the Old Georgians
Sports Club second team since his final year at junior school,
moving up to their first team in Form 4. His progress was
gradual, with no really high scores, but he was batting down the
order for them and, as a slow scorer, time was against him.
Despite playing with and against others so much older than he, he
felt comfortable, knowing that time was on his side. He was
selected for the Young Zimbabwe squad while still at school.
After leaving school he went overseas, to England, to play, as he
has done almost every year since, apart from a year in Holland.
Since 1990/91 he has been employed by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union
during the Zimbabwean summer, making him a year-round
professional cricketer. When not playing, he did a lot of
coaching at schools, and also helped at cricket festivals and
represented the ZCU at functions.
He had already appeared in first-class cricket, being selected
first to play in the five-day matches against Mark Nicholas'
England A team. In his second match, the third of the series, he
opened the innings and scored a determined fifty; his century
partnership with his brother Andy helped to ensure that Zimbabwe
saved the match after a disastrous first innings.
The turning point in his career, he feels, was during the 1990
ICC tournament, the winners of which would qualify for the World
Cup. This was a vital competition for Zimbabwe, as failure to
win and exclusion from the World Cup and the consequent loss of
revenue would have been an insurmountable blow to cricket in the
country, which would almost certainly not be playing Test cricket
today had that happened. Grant, still aged only 19, was a late
selection for the team, most probably because the selectors felt
that as a slow scorer he would be unsuited to limited-over
cricket. Left out of the first match, he opened the innings in
the next with Grant Paterson, and scored an unbeaten 53 in a
ten-wicket victory over Singapore. Then came an innings of 70
against Canada, which proved quite invaluable as the other
leading batsmen disappointed, and unbeaten innings against
Papua-New Guinea and the U.S.A. He did not do so well in the
semi-final and final, but had done enough to prove his worth.
From then on, he has been an almost automatic selection for
Zimbabwe.
Unfortunately he was to miss the World Cup in Australia and New
Zealand; playing for a Zimbabwe development team in the newly
readmitted South Africa, he broke a bone in his arm while
batting, which put him out of the tour. However, he was fit and
ready the following season, when Zimbabwe were promoted to Test
status and the Indians arrived for the Inaugural Test match.
Before the Test began, he was nervous, as were all the Zimbabwean
players, but he mentions the importance of making nerves work for
a player to help him get psyched up. The newly appointed coach
John Hampshire, a man who himself had overcome the nerves to
score a century on his Test debut, gave them an excellent
preparation to enable them to take the field with a positive,
confident attitude. Grant stepped on to the field with Kevin
Arnott to open the innings, with Arnott taking strike. It was a
flat pitch, but there were few bad balls and the batsmen were
forced to work hard for their runs. Grant dug in and shared an
opening partnership of 100 before Arnott was out. He himself
grew in confidence as he passed his fifty and had strong hopes of
scoring a century on his Test debut, as Dave Houghton was to do.
Unfortunately, just before the close, when on 82, he was given
out caught at the wicket to a ball which he feels flicked his pad
rather than his bat, the first of a surprising number of
controversial dismissals that have affected him in Tests.
Later in the season, in India, he came closer to a Test century,
being dismissed for 96. He had not yet scored a first-class
century, but put that right during a brief tour to England in
1993, when his 130 helped to cause some controversy, as Zimbabwe
chose to save a match they could not win at Scarborough rather
than play what was considered `festival cricket' and risk
throwing it away.
The tour to Pakistan in 1993/94 was a disappointment, as he had
to take first strike against Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis on
their home pitches; he scored only 79 runs in the three Tests.
His confidence had taken a knock but, as he himself says, the
secret of success is coping with failures. He was more than
ready when Pakistan paid a return visit to Zimbabwe.
The First Test opened on a pitch giving assistance to the
seamers, and Pakistan were perfectly equipped to handle that.
The ball was moving about all over the place, three wickets fell
for 43, and Pakistan were quite confident they could roll
Zimbabwe over. Grant himself says that those who feel that this
match was `fixed', in view of the bribery allegations that were
to follow, should have seen just what the Pakistani bowlers were
doing with the ball that morning. But Grant himself was still
there, a triumph of concentration and technique. While his
brother Andy took the initiative, Grant kept his end up,
accumulating when safe to do so, taking it one ball and one
session at a time, and was still there on 88 at close of play.
He grew more confident as the innings progressed, and moved on
the following day to his first double-century.
Grant has always batted particularly well with his brother Andy,
especially when they used to open the innings together in one-day
matches. Their running between the wickets is brilliant, as they
have got to know each other so well over the years and have such
trust in each other, and having Andy at the other end often seems
to bring out the best in Grant's batting. Were it not for Andy's
wicketkeeping and his dislike of opening the batting, they would
be the ideal solution to Zimbabwe's opening partnership problem.
Unfortunately, more recently Andy has batted down the order,
partly due to his wicket-keeping duties, and the opening
partnership has been less stable as a result.
Since that series, Grant has notably grown in confidence,
maturity and scoring ability, as he himself admits. "When I
first started off, I was very limited in my strokeplay," he
confesses. "I had just two or three shots that I was prepared to
play. Now every time I go overseas in the winter, I try to work
out a new shot to add to my game and to bring it back with me, to
make the trip really worthwhile. Playing all the time keeps me
thinking about cricket and increases my confidence. Obviously I
need a break every now and again, or I end up getting stale."
Grant's own improvement, he agrees, is more mental than
technical, a matter of positive thinking and steadily increasing
confidence.
He was again the key man in the series against England, and much
to his surprise his dogged 73 on a difficult pitch and heavy
outfield in Harare won him the Man of the Match award. It was
never a spectacular innings -- that was virtually impossible in
those conditions -- but it was of inestimable value as he held
together the Zimbabwe batting, making a useful first-innings lead
possible, and gave the Englishmen a lesson on how to bat in what
are often regarded as typical English conditions. He did little
in the first two one-day internationals, but contributed a fine
62 in the third.
It was during the triangular series in South Africa that he
really gave evidence of how much he had progressed as a
strokemaker. Facing a South African attack spearheaded by Allan
Donald and Shaun Pollock, and an Indian attack containing Javagal
Srinath, sometimes the fastest of the lot, he played superbly
throughout. A magnificent 90 in the first match against South
Africa held together a brittle innings and enabled his team to
put up a strong fight, as did his 62 in the third South African
match, while he also got his team off to sound starts against
India, culminating in his 61 not out in the Bulawayo match
against India as the latter were on their way home, taking
Zimbabwe through to a decisive victory.
In all these matches he batted with greater fluency than ever
before, and started 1997/98 in the same vein, having added the
pull shot to his repertoire. During the 1997 season he was
coaching at Epsom College in England, although still playing
frequently, including a first-class match for M.C.C. against the
Pakistan A tourists, when he scored 78. He also scored a century
for M.C.C. against a John Paul Getty XI. He would like to play
county cricket, if given the opportunity, and would certainly be
an outstanding acquisition for any county looking for an opening
batsman who can also bowl and is a brilliant fielder in any
position.
Against New Zealand Grant enjoyed the best season of his career
to date. Admittedly the opposition bowling was perhaps the
weakest in Test cricket, but Grant showed a greater confidence
and fluency than ever at this level. When Zimbabwe were put in
to bat in the First Test, in conditions that considerably
assisted the bowler, he dug in and ground out the runs in his old
style, taking 166 balls to reach a fifty and speeding up a little
to reach his third Test century in 269 balls. In the second
innings, with Zimbabwe ahead by 91 runs and batting conditions
good, he dominated the bowling from the start. His second
century of the match -- the first Zimbabwean to achieve this feat
-- came off 155 balls this time, and he reached it in thrilling
fashion. Chris Cairns bowled a bouncer outside off stump in an
attempt to tie him down, but he stepped back and uppercut it
superbly for six over the third-man fielder. When he was
eventually out, for 151, the Zimbabwe innings lost momentum and
eventually continued for too long for his team to win the match.
He showed similar skill in the Bulawayo Test, with a fine 83 in
the first innings. Second time round, with Zimbabwe looking for
quick runs, he gave a dazzling display of strokeplay to score 49
off just 46 balls before uncharacteristically gambling on a very
risky single to take him to his fifty, and being run out. Time
and again he lofted the ball over the fielders and his judgement
was impeccable.
After scoring 66 in the first one-day international, he failed in
the next two, but enjoyed good form in the Three Nations
tournament, against Kenya and Bangladesh. His six matches
included four fifties, and in three of them he shared century
opening partnerships with Andy. In Sri Lanka and New Zealand, the
two tours that were perhaps the lowest point for Zimbabwe since
they were granted Test status, he batted consistently, five times
passing 30 in eight Test innings, but never went on to play a
major innings when it was needed. He did a little better in the
one-day matches, scoring a fine century in the third of the
losing series against Sri Lanka.
Zimbabwe returned home to play Pakistan with their morale low,
but it was then that Grant played another crucial innings for his
country. Against fine pace and swing bowling, especially by
Waqar Younis, he kept his wicket and then slowly began to
accumulate runs, mainly through selective drives. He eventually
carried his bat through the innings for 156 not out, a fine
innings for him but even more critical for his country, as his
example helped to restore morale and fighting spirit to the team.
Apart from his brother Andy and Heath Streak, he received little
support, but after that, although he did not score heavily again
himself, the rest of the Zimbabwe team played more positively and
confidently, and they were in fact not far short of winning that
First Test.
During the off season of 1998, Grant again played in England,
this time for Harrogate. He suffered poor weather and poor
pitches, but concentrated on patiently batting out the overs. He
rates it as no better than an average season, hampered by finger
injuries, despite scoring about 1100 runs with three or four
centuries. He found the experience valuable as he was always
under pressure to score runs.
He had a bad start to the 1998/99 season, breaking a finger
attempting a return catch in a club match just before the Indian
tour, and this resulted in his missing a Test match for the first
time for Zimbabwe, after playing in all of the first 30. He
returned for the Mini World Cup in Bangladesh, but failed; then
at Sharjah he played a steady innings of 87 not out in the first
one-day match against Sri Lanka to help bring his team victory.
He then went through a period of poor form when he was unable to
put his finger on what was wrong. He did little in the Test
matches in Pakistan that followed, and played 12 one-day innings
without a fifty until he broke through in the final of the
one-day triangular tournament in Bangladesh, against Kenya.
Despite losing his opening partner Neil Johnson in the first
over, he went for his strokes and reached a superb fifty off only
41 balls. His century came off 82, and altogether he hit a
dazzling 140 off 125 balls, the highest ever innings for Zimbabwe
in a one-day international apart from Dave Houghton's 142 against
New Zealand in the World Cup of 1987/88. This led to Zimbabwe's
highest ever one-day total, 325 for six wickets, and a record
victory margin of 202 runs.
Then came the World Cup, and again Grant failed to make the
impact expected of him, failing to score a fifty in the eight
matches and having a particularly lean time in the Super Six
section. He had successive scores of 45, 42 and 35 in the first
round, but failed to go on to a really significant score. After
the competition, for the first time for many years he opted to
return to Zimbabwe for the winter and take a break from cricket.
Grant has concentrated on his batting more than his bowling,
bearing in mind that Zimbabwe's prime need is for a reliable
opening batsman and anchorman. Although he does enjoy bowling
seriously in the nets, and bowls fairly regularly in first-class
cricket and even in Tests, he considers the main value of his
left-armers is in one-day cricket, to take the pressure off the
front-line bowlers and keep it tight. "I'm not a genuine turner
of the ball," he says. "I rely more on accuracy and varying my
flight to take wickets. Unless I'm playing on a turner in India
or Pakistan -- I think anybody can turn the ball on some of those
pitches!" His faster action when pushing the ball through has
often been thought suspect, though, and he has actually been
called for throwing in a Logan Cup match.
Grant was appointed captain of the Mashonaland Under-23 or Young
Mashonaland team during its three years in the Logan Cup, and did
an excellent job. His inspiring leadership, in man-management as
well as leading by personal performance, played a major part in
winning the competition during its first year. He was sounded
out about taking over the captaincy of the national side when
Andy resigned, but did not feel it was the right time for him,
concentrating as hard as he was on developing his batting then.
But he is spoken of very highly around the country for his
captaincy skills, and is not averse to reconsidering the position
in the future, should the opportunity arise.
Grant feels that there are plenty of good players in Zimbabwe who
have all the talent required for success at Test level, but
haven't yet worked out their games; they don't know what their
best shots are and so try to play too many. The result of this is
that they don't spend enough time at the crease because they are
usually in the pavilion! So much of this can be improved by
talking about the game more, discussing things with such players
as Andy, who has an excellent approach, and learning that way.
The highlights of his career have been Zimbabwe's Test victory
over Pakistan and the one-day series victory over England, with
his double-century against Pakistan his greatest personal
achievement. Wasim Akram he names as the most difficult bowler
he has ever faced.