Flower steers clear of mind games
Andy Flower is determined not to be drawn into any mind games, despite the hosts questioning several of England's decisions.
Opposite number Mickey Arthur, who has already spoken of his frustration over Cape Town-born Jonathan Trott's choice to switch his allegiances, yesterday called England "predictable" after they slumped to an 84-run loss to the hosts.
The Proteas coach was baffled after the tourists decided to hold back more attacking players like Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Trott and Kevin Pietersen and instead open the batting with the conventional pair of Alastair Cook and Joe Denly as they pursued a massive 242.
Arthur was also perplexed with the decision of stand-in captain Cook not to use spin bowler Adil Rashid after he conceded 25 in his only over, but the England coach refused to be drawn in.
"I've gone through my career as a player and will continue to do so as a coach in as modest a fashion as possible," Flower said. "Perhaps their status as number one is encouraging them to react differently, but I'm very comfortable where we are as a team and I concentrate all my energies on us as a team.
"Yes, I analyse the opposition, but I won't be commenting on those things.
"I think in competitive sport that (mind games) are always happening. You're always reading people's body language.
"If someone's a particularly good sledger, it can get under certain people's skin. Depends on the reaction to it, I think that's the crux of it is the reaction to it.
"We are quite comfortable where we are as a group of men and we'll be concentrating on winning the games put in front of us."
Flower defended the decision to bowl Rashid for one over - a move Arthur described as "criminal".
The England coach continued: "Adil bowled six balls yesterday to two batsmen that were absolutely set. It was a flat wicket, it wasn't turning and it was a small outfield.
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"He got punished in those six balls. Now, I know Adil and he's a very good young man. He's only a 22-year-old leg spinner sort of finding his way.
"He's very skilful and he's going to be a very good all-rounder actually. He's been doing some excellent work with Mushtaq Ahmed (spin bowling coach).
"So, I'm not overly concerned with what happened yesterday, to be honest. I don't think it's going to damage him in any way. I think he'll handle it absolutely fine.
"Regardless of comments from the opposition - I don't really care about them. We're quite comfortable with Adil's development.
"His development is a medium to long-term thing. He's not going to become a world beater overnight and he also isn't going to be damaged in any permanent way overnight either."
Flower also praised the way Cook handled himself after he was thrown in at the last minute as captain following an injury to Paul Collingwood.
He said: "It was a difficult situation for Alastair Cook, who I thought handled himself very well out there.
"That was probably as hard as it can get for a captain first time round - small outfield, flat deck, two guys in very good form and an inexperienced bowling line-up to counter the two hitters. "
Asked whether there were thoughts of asking Pietersen to lead the side, Flower explained instead that the idea was to give the England vice-captain more experience as they planned for the future.
He added: "I think it was an opportunity to get Cook out there into a pressure situation. For him to see how it felt, for us to see how Cook reacted and I think he did very well.
"It makes sense to obviously have a succession plan. He is a possibility, he's a strong young man with a good international record.
"We want (Andrew) Strauss to captain the side for a number of years to come. It's too early to make clear-cut decisions on that type of thing. But we'd be stupid not to be developing people to take over at some stage."
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