JOHANNESBURG - He has not said it and nor has the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, but everybody is thinking it.
All things being equal, Andy Flower, one of the best batsmen of his generation, will likely play his last game for his country against Sri Lanka at East London on Saturday night.
His country? The words are apposite.
Zimbabwe has yet to call on Flower to surrender his passport after his World Cup protests against President Robert Mugabe's Government, but it has already disowned him.
Nathan Shamuyarira, information secretary for the governing Zanu-PF Party, put it simply during an interview with a Johannesburg radio station.
"Flower is ... not a Zimbabwean," Shamuyarira said. "He is British."
Flower, Cape Town-born, Zimbabwe-bred and with an English wife, could end up being just that - British, or even Australian.
He seems set to divide his future between England and Australia, playing county cricket - he was a big success at Essex last year - and state cricket.
Rarely can a player have made such a stressful, unhappy exit from the international game, although team-mate Henry Olonga - a Zambian, according to Shamuyarira - finds himself in similar circumstances.
The two set their own agenda in protesting against human rights abuses and "mourning the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe."
They also wore black arm and wrist bands for a couple of cup matches before being pressured to desist.
Flower, in all probability, had accepted that his declaration would mean the end of his Zimbabwe career.
Aged 34 and still at the top of his game, he might have played on for several years more, as a specialist batsman rather than wicketkeeper after agreeing to groom Tatenda Taibu as his successor behind the stumps.
Flower will be remembered as a neat gloveman and a tenacious, flinty, formidable left-handed batsman who delved deep into the psychology of his art. No one sold his wicket more dearly.
If he does not play again, he will retire with a test average of 51.54. Only four men playing test cricket - Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, of Australia, and Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, of India - average more than Flower.
- REUTERS
World Cup schedule
Points table
Cricket: Disowned Flower faces finale
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.