Flower: Not worth dropping Flintoff over Flanders incident
Flintoff missed the team bus but will not be dropped by Flower
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Saturday, 04, Jul 2009 11:30
England coach Andy Flower says the issue over Andrew Flintoff missing the team bus during a trip to Flanders last week was not serious enough to drop him.
Flower insists that despite the sensitive nature of the trip the problem for Flintoff was essentially a time-keeping one and that he should not have a bearing on his Test place at this stage.
However, the England coach says his players do not have a free pass and he is willing to take action if necessary, but he will also stand by them even if the public want some accountability.
"It's a sensitive issue: I won't just say, 'Yes, of course I would' just because that is what everyone wants to hear," he told The Times.
"What I will say is that this particular situation was not a big enough thing for me to drop Andrew Flintoff."
Flower said that dropping the all-rounder at this stage could have ended his international career and Flower did not think that was fair to Flintoff.
He added: "No way was it a serious enough issue to do that, to finish someone's career. I'm very clear in my own mind about that.
"But if a difficult decision has to be made, we will make a difficult decision."
Flower says that past transgressions will not count against his players and that they have a clean slate from when his regime took over from Peter Moores.
However, the Zimbabwean warned that if a decision to drop a player, either due to form or lack of discipline, needs to be made he will not shy away from it.
"All the decisions we make are in the best interests of the England cricket team; there are no hidden agendas at all - it's simple," concluded Flower.