Flower says debacle can spark change

ENGLAND plumbed new depths in their one-day international whitewash in India but coach Andy Flower is hoping that having their limitations exposed can spark self-improvement.

He likened Tuesday night’s collapse of all 10 wickets for 47 runs at Eden Gardens to an early low point in his tenure in February 2009. Flower was still only interim coach when, in his first match in charge, England were skittled for 51 at Sabina Park, Jamaica, to lose by an innings on the way to a 1-0 Test series defeat in the West Indies.

Yet, within six months England had won the Ashes and begun an upward graph which would see them clinch the urn down under for the first time in almost 25 years and become the world’s top Test team.

They also prevailed in an International Cricket Council event for the first time in the 2010 World Twenty20 but there has been no such period of consistent ODI achievement. Flower said: “We have to change the traditional limitations against spin and certainly by the time we come out here in 14 months’ time to play another limited-overs series we have to look at it very differently.”

He added: “If we can use this as a catalyst for that sort of change then some good can come of it.

“I was reflecting last night on a similar feeling after being 51 all out in Jamaica. If we can use it to start something better in our subcontinent limited-overs batting then some good can come of this.”