Do you know that!
 

Do you know that Andy Flower Averaged more then Viv Richards in test match,Andy Flower averaging 51 in test matches,That is incredible :)

I think Viv should have finished with an ave:54.00+ He played on a little too long imho
:)

nevertheless, he was a great batsman.

I agree Viv was a far far far greater batsman, In many people's opinion than Andy . :D

Andy Flower is one of my favourite keeper - batsmen ever, how many of his top innings when his team where heading for defeat and earned themselves a draw or saved themselves from an innings defeat etc?

And is power of concentration is something I admire, to be able to keep for so long, then go out and bat for a long time and make a big score which saved his country.

I think that it just shows how good a player Andy Flower was

its not incredible at all. it shows that andy flower is a very very good player, it shows that viv retired a lot too late, it shows that pitches have gotten flatter, bowling has gotten worse, and it shows that averages are never reliable.

Well said, summed it up nicely.

No, it shows that taking average as the pure decider of who was the better batsman is never a good idea because it can often be unreliable.
But it certainly shows Viv retired too late, and exactly the same thing applies to Botham.

I think it shows that they're not reliable for comparing players from different eras, rather than comparing players full stop.

the only thing that the average(and im referring to the overall average) is useful for is to tell whether someone is good enough to play international cricket or not. unless you are comparing players with a 15-20+ average difference, averages alone never tell the entire story, because it doesnt account for conditions, opposition, pitches, circumstances, consistency or reliability(of the player).

Andy Flower played in his early 20's for my club(VCC in holland) and only avg about25 in the dutch domestic league. but he did bring a lot to the club. a lot of lefties :p

so what ? ian bell averages higher than any of the india or australian batsman in tests :p

And with any luck it'll go up before it goes down given that his next 2 "Tests" are against Bangladesh.

Accept it Richard, Bangladesh are an official Test playing nation, so therefore their Tests are official.