Flower presses the reset button

England coach Andy Flower said the present England team did not compare to the West Indies side who did not lose a Test series.

England coach Andy Flower said the present England team did not compare to the West Indies side who did not lose a Test series from 1980-95 or the Australian team who twice won 16 consecutive tests,from 1999-2001 and then 2005-2007 but is looking to carve its own niche. Andrew Strauss team have won six consecutive series to date.

We are a good side there is no doubt about that,former Zimbabwe batsman Flower said. But I dont think we can compare ourselves to those sides to be quite honest. They dominated world cricket for lengthy periods. We have been playing well for a little while now but only for a short time in cricketing history terms. There is no way we can compare ourselves to those sides in my opinion. Who knows what the future holds though? That is going to be up to us. It is up to us to deliver excellence and be hungry enough to keep driving ourselves hard enough to deliver that excellence. Time will tell. Flower said.

Flower now wants his side to qualify for the inaugural World Test Championship and conquer foreign shores,where the the team has lost in the past. Flower said his mantra is not to sit on laurels but continue striving for newer heights. I always think it is very dangerous to try to hold on to what you have got. We used that goal to be No.1 as a motivational tool that drove us in training and in matches. Now that we have achieved that,what Strauss and I dont want to do is hang on to No1 status. Thats not a very exciting way to go about our business. We are going to have to reset our goals, Flower added.

The former Zimbabwe wicketkepper-batsman said the new goals for the side is to improve record in sub-continent. This winter we go to play against two countries that the last time England toured those countries,we lost. We want to go away and play Pakistan and Sri Lanka away from home and win those series. Ignoring the ranking,those series will have their own importance.

Meanwhile, Flower will take a break and miss his side8217;s ODI against Ireland on August 25 but will return for the lone Twenty20 International and five-match ODI series against India. This will be the first time Flower will miss an England game since he took over as coach in April 2009. He will spend some time with his family as assistant coach Richard Halsall will stand in his place.

Mace of superiority

India8217;s nearly 20-month reign as world number one Test side will formally come to an end when England captain Andrew Strauss is handed the ICC Mace after the end of the fourth and final Test of the series.

The mace,however,will not be presented at The Oval,the venue of the fourth match beginning on August 18,to avoid a clash between two rival sponsors of the England team and the ICC,according to The Guardian. The mace is plated in silver and gold and is valued at around 30,000 pound sterling.

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An ICC spokesman said that a ceremony is likely to be arranged for the day after the end of the series.