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Andy Flower is the first Zimbabwean player to be inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame, class of 2021. Inductee announcements were made earlier today, June 13th, in a virtual special edition show that coincided with the first ever ICC World Test Championship Final.
Arguably Zimbabwe’s greatest ever player, Andy Flower shone through the 1990s and early 2000s.
A batter of the highest caliber, Flower averaged 51.54 across 63 Tests and 35.34 across 213 ODI, all while excelling behind the stumps as a keeper.
The 10 icons inducted as part of this special edition were voted for by the ICC Hall of Fame Voting Academy, comprising living Hall of Fame members, a FICA representative, prominent cricket journalists and senior ICC figures.
The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame Special Edition induction was divided into five categories with two players from each category being inducted.
The categories were as follows:
- Early Cricket Era Pre - 1918 (Aubrey Faulkner, South Africa and Monty Noble, Australia
- Inter-war Cricket Era - 1918 - 1945 (Sir Learie Constantine, West Indies and Stan McCabe, Australia)
- Post-war Cricket Era - 1946 - 1970 (Ted Dexter, England and Vinoo Mankad, India)
- Odi Era - 1971 - 1995 (Desmond Haynes, West Indies and Bob Willis, England)
- Modern Cricket Era - 1996 - 2016
Andy Flower was inducted into the Modern Cricket Era, along with Kumar Sangakkara who played for Sr Lanka from 2000 to 2015.
"He was the Bradman of Zimbabwe."
— ICC (@ICC) June 13, 2021
Our next #ICCHallOfFame 2021 inductee is 🇿🇼 great, Andy Flower. pic.twitter.com/dKhPfqfkdv
"I always viewed myself as less physically talented, than a lot of the guys that were playing at the time and I thought that my decision making, my patience and I suppose, a level of grittiness when you are out there fighting for your country was really important. And I suppose, perhaps, that's why people might regard patience as being part of my betting make up." Says Flower during the ICC induction show
"The innings that really stand out for me especially was actually a partnership with my brother in 1995, against Pakistan in Harare which is probably, obviously one of my favorite grounds but my brother and I came together, I think we were about 40 - 45 for 3 after winning the toss and betting and we ended up, Grant got a double 100, I got a 150 and we got a first earning score that sort of set the foundation for our first ever test win and that, I think is the innings that I enjoyed the most.." He continues reflecting on the most memorable innings during his 11 year career.
Watch Andy Flower segment below starting from 30.43 minute mark
The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame was launched on 2 January 2009 in association with the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA), as part of the ICC's centenary year celebrations. The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame recognises the achievements of the legends of the game from cricket's long and illustrious history.
The initial intake of inductees are the 55 players named in the FICA Hall of Fame, which ran between 1999 and 2003. This was supplemented by a select group of inductions each year, which started in 2009 when five new inductees; Wasim Akram, Clarrie Grimmett, Herbert Sutcliffe, Victor Trumper and Steve Waugh, were announced as new members of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame at the LG ICC Awards.