Flower hopes to bloom with the Maratha Arabians

Dubai - Flower will be dipping his feet in the big world of franchise cricket

Former England coach and technical director Andy Flower said that he would go in with an "innocent set of eyes" when he makes his coaching debut in franchise cricket with the Aldar Properties Abu Dhabi T10 League.
Flower, once a stalwart of Zimbabwean cricket, who then moved on to have a successful coaching career with the England team, will be dipping his feet in the big world of franchise cricket.
The 51-year-old will be at the helm of the Maratha Arabians after calling time on his 12-year stint with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in October.
This will be his first tryst with any form of League cricket after he spent most of his time with a National team.
Flower revealed that he has gained intel from players and coaches but won't base his opinion on it and he would like to experience it for himself.
"I have been chatting with various players and coaches about it," said Flower.
"But I don't really want to form all my opinions from other people's opinions. I want to arrive with quite an innocent set of eyes and feel it and see it for myself, and enjoy it for myself," he added.
Flower also revealed that he hadn't watched any of the matches but felt it would be something really exciting to be a part of.
"I haven't seen any of the T10 but I've been doing my bits of research on it. Obviously, things happen very quickly in this condensed version and the fortunes of a side can ebb or flow very quickly. So, I think it is going to be exciting to be a part of," Flower said.
Flower and few of the players, who had flown in early, had a session at the MS Dhoni Cricket Academy located at the Springdales School in Al Quoz.
"Yuvraj Singh, who is going to be an important player for us, hopefully he can stay fit for the whole series, it is good for him to get into the nets. And I thought he looked quite good. And some of the local UAE boys getting a little bit of exposure here, meeting some of the overseas stars. That's a nice gentle introduction for us to this tournament," he said.
About the transition from coaching a National team to a franchise team, Flower, who guided England to the 2010 T20 World Cup title as well as No.1 in the Test rankings, said: "When you are working with the National teams, obviously you have much more continuity than that. You are seeing them all the time, you have medium and long term goals for each one of those players. This is different. This is about getting a bunch of people together very quickly, making them feel like a team very quickly. But these players are very used to it. They are very good at mixing with each other and making it feel right in the dressing room, in the training area and hopefully in the games as well," felt Flower.