Andy Flower will not be the next England Test head coach. He made that clear Thursday.
Flower, who coached England from 2009 to 2014 and oversaw three Ashes victories including the last England away win in Australia in 2010-11, had been in conversations with the England and Wales Cricket Board about the vacancy. Those talks are now over.
According to BBC Sport, Flower spoke at a media day for London Spirit ahead of this year's Hundred competition and confirmed he had removed himself from consideration.
"I have spoken to the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board). I am aware of the head coach vacancy of the England national team," Flower said. "I have spoken with [managing director of men's cricket] Rob [Key] at the ECB on that topic. The bottom line for me is I'm very happy in the work that I'm doing at the moment."
Flower is currently head coach of both Royal Challengers Bengaluru and London Spirit. He led RCB to back-to-back IPL titles in 2025 and 2026 and won The Hundred with Trent Rockets in 2022. The overlap between the IPL calendar and the English summer was central to his decision.
"For me, personally, I don't think I could have both, especially with the IPL being held in the first couple of months of the English summer," he said. "If I was England Test coach I would like to be here, watching and interacting with the people I need to watch and interact with. For me that wasn't a possibility."
He also reflected on his previous time with England with clear warmth. "I've worked with England before and I had an amazing time. I had the privilege to be England head coach and represent England a number of years ago and I remember those years really fondly," Flower said. "It would be a privilege for me or anyone else to be the Test coach. For me at this time, I'm really comfortable with what I'm doing and I'm going to stick with doing that."
When asked directly if he had ruled himself out, Flower answered: "I have, yes."
The vacancy opened earlier this month when Brendon McCullum was sacked from the red-ball role following poor results and a series of off-field controversies. McCullum remains in charge of England's white-ball setup.
The ECB is in an early stage of identifying candidates. Jonathan Trott, Richard Dawson, Stephen Fleming, and Tom Moody have all been linked to the position. The board has not ruled out appointing an interim coach for the series against Pakistan in August, which gives the search a firm deadline.
