Flower to join Peshawar PSL coaching staff

London, December 18: Former England coach Andy Flower will join the Peshawar Zalmi franchise for the first Pakistan Premier League next year, and will be their batting coach for three weeks, with permission from the ECB, British media reported on Friday.
England’s top brass are keen to get their coaches and players more involved in T20 leagues, after years of resistance, so Flower will spend the three weeks in February in Pakistan.
Flower told ecb.co.uk: “I’ve been approached to do some batting coaching for Peshawar, one of the franchises in the new Pakistan Super League. I’m looking forward to doing something different.
“I’ve chatted with Andrew Strauss about whether that’s okay from an ECB perspective and he says it is on the basis that it’s good for our English coaches to get out and about amongst some of these Twenty20 franchise competitions.
“To learn what’s happening outside of the domestic game in England, to interact with some of the international coaches and players, and to bring some of that knowledge back into our game in England.”
The former Zimbabwe Test batsman played three tours in Pakistan before cricket teams stopped touring there in 2008, and he said he was pleased to go back and hoped the PSL would lead to Test cricket’s return.
Flower added: “I toured Pakistan a number of times as a player, and I think it’s really sad that we aren’t playing international cricket in Pakistan.
“Of course there are good reasons for that but the sooner we get back playing in Pakistan the better. I really enjoyed my tours anywhere in Asia and Pakistan was no different.
“We toured some fascinating places. Obviously the main cities but also we got out to Peshawar, we played a Test up there, we also played in Quetta, and I always found it fascinating observing another culture. “In this instance I think I’m really going to find it interesting being in amongst a group of Pakistani players and coaches, with a few international players there.