Flower quits South Australia after one season

Andy Flower, feeling the pinch after endless months of playing cricket and fielding questions about Zimbabwe's future, has pulled out of his three-year contract with South Australia.

"The past few years have been extremely turbulent for my family and playing 12 months of the year has taken its toll on me physically," Flower, 36, announced in a prepared statement.

"I do not believe that I would be giving the Redbacks the 100% they deserve from me if I continued, and I also need to give my family a stable environment in which to live. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed our time in South Australia and, although it was brief, we will cherish the memories."

Flower, the former mainstay of Zimbabwe's Test side, was billed last year as the biggest international recruit to the Australian scene since Imran Khan and Ian Botham in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Unlike Imran, and in common with Botham, he struggled. He lasted only one season, averaging 24 and mustering just two half-centuries in first-class matches.

South Australia's chief executive, Mike Deare, said he understood but was saddened by Flower's decision. "Not only will we miss a quality batsman," he said, "but also a player who brought strong leadership skills to the squad."

Leadership is a tense issue in South Australian cricket circles just now, with the selectors reportedly reluctant to re-endorse Darren Lehmann as the state's captain.

Asked by Adelaide's Advertiser newspaper about Lehmann's status, the coach Wayne Phillips replied: "I am not answering that question." Phillips went on to say it was "a pest" that next summer's captain could not be announced because "we don't have a decision". He said: "The chairman of selectors, the panel and I sit down, we go through who is going to be available, who will be the best possible person to do that role. And I hope within the next few weeks we'll have a decision on that."

Their quandary would appear to be news to the 34-year-old Lehmann. He said recently that he loved doing the job and that the only uncertainty surrounded who would fill in when he was on international duty. "I think I will be captain next year basically, there's no problems there," Lehmann said ahead of last week's first Test against Sri Lanka. "I think that has pretty much been decided."

With Flower now out of the picture, Greg Blewett looms as the likeliest possible successor to Lehmann. But Paul Nobes, the new chairman of selectors and former state batsman, has emphasised the importance of youth and could yet pull a surprise or two. The leadership qualities of Graham Manou and the raw but talented 23-year-old batsman Ben Cameron have already been whispered about.

South Australia finished bottom of the Pura Cup and fifth in the ING Cup last summer.

A replacement for Flower will be named shortly. He is expected to play on with Essex, for whom he is averaging 44 this summer, until end of the 2005 season.