Andy Flower , England team director who guided sides to three Ashes triumphs and the world No 1 spot , will not be interfering in any way with the work of the next director of England cricket . The England Cricket Board gave Flower the confusing title of technical director of elite coaching after he renegotiated a new role at significantly lower pay after resigning as team boss following the last Ashes whitewash . This has led to speculation that Flower ’ s continuing role on the ECB staff would conflict with the job description of the new appointment . Former England team director Andy Flower is now technical director of elite coaching at the ECB . But effectively Flower is now running the England cricket academy at Loughborough and working with young players in a coaching role , and liaising with counties . And it ’ s understood he has no wish to get involved at England senior level again or become entangled in the politics . Those politics have Kevin Pietersen at centre stage as ever . But Flower , having closed one chapter in his life and fully moved on to his behind-the-scenes Loughborough role , is highly unlikely to speak out about KP now . Meanwhile , Pietersen , who is using social media app Periscope to film himself getting a sun tan or whistling , continues to dominate the PR battle against the ECB , who botched his axing and have totally mismanaged the fall-out since . Kevin Pietersen is back playing cricket for Surrey in the hope of winning back a Test spot in the England side . It looks only a matter of time before Manuel Pellegrini is sacked as Manchester City manager . And his son Juan , who is living in England , isn ’ t waiting for the axe to fall on his father , having already made plans to take his wife and four children back to Chile . However , Juan ’ s return is purely for family reasons with his wife , who has just had twins , wanting family support to look after four kids who are under the age of five . Only the ECB ’ s hopeless media team could launch the domestic NatWest T20 Blast , which needs all the promotional hype it can muster to compete with the IPL and Big Bash , on the same day as an England Test match . And only the ECB , having brought in former Ashes hero Freddie Flintoff to drum up publicity for the launch , could then decide he shouldn ’ t speak to national newspapers . An ECB spokesman said the date wasn ’ t ideal but they were constrained by the domestic and international schedule . And the print media snub was due to the ECB having limited time with Flintoff . Andrew Flintoff ( left ) shares a joke with Warwickshire and England 's Chris Woakes at the T20 Blast launch . There was a player for all 18 counties present at the T20 Blast launch on Thursday . It can cause problems in football when agents represent players and managers . But the ECB have no concerns that former county cricketer Luke Sutton represents both Jimmy Anderson and England head coach Peter Moores . Likewise , the FA say they have no problems with England manager Roy Hodgson ’ s agent being Leon Angel who also looks after emerging international Danny Rose . Coincidentally , West Indies coach Phil Simmons is paid well enough to need the advice of David Manasseh , whose Stellar agency clients include the world ’ s most expensive footballer Gareth Bale . Sepp ’ s no messiah . Sepp Blatter ’ s smooth procession to a ridiculous fifth term as FIFA president continued at the Central American CONCACAF Congress in the Bahamas . Such was the lack of democracy Blatter ’ s three rivals weren ’ t even given the opportunity to address delegates . One delegate , Osiris Guzman of the Dominican Republic , was so sycophantic towards Blatter he spoke of him in the same terms as Moses , Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela . God help us . Andrew Strauss is part of Sky ’ s top-heavy team of cricket pundits for the Ashes series . But that commitment should not prove an obstacle to him becoming director of England Cricket , a position for which he is one of the front-runners . Strauss is one of the weak links in the commentary box - Sir Ian Botham is the other - and looks far more suited to be a Hugh Morris-style leader of England cricket if that ’ s what the ECB decide they ’ re looking for . Former England captain Andrew Strauss is a front-runner to becoming director of England Cricket . Such is the friendship between Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove and Sir Ian Botham , who are each building houses on St Kitts , that the new restaurant in the Hilton Hotel that is part of the Ageas Bowl outside Southampton is to be called Beefy ’ s despite Botham having no association with Hampshire .
Andy Flower guided England to three Ashes wins over Australia . Former team director also led England to the world No 1 ICC ranking . Andrew Strauss is a front-runner to becoming director of ECB .