Flower slams Streak's decision to return
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Interviewed in the May issue of The Wisden Cricketer, Flower said that Streak had "led them into it and is now back playing is poor form. There have not been the wholesale changes they were demanding but they want to go back - I don't know what the reasons are. But you don't make a big stand then, when nothing changes, go back and say: `Actually, I do want a contract'. Now there are half a dozen or so young white players out of a job."
Flower says that he advised his brother Grant - another of the so-called rebels - against taking the stand that has effectively ended his international career. "When Grant first got in touch and told me what they were planning to do, my advice was not to do it - not to have a rebel group of white cricketers giving ultimatums to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. I told him he would not win that battle. He'd either not play any more international cricket or be in a protracted battle in court. There wouldn't be any winners."
Even with the return of former rebels like Streak and Andy Blignaut, Flower believes the impact on the team will be limited and likely to be affected by the bitter wrangling of the past 12 months. "It will add to the strength of the side a little, but there was a lot of damage done, with all the racial discussion and I think there is a limit to the improvement the rebels are going to make. I find it very surprising that they can return after the relationship breakdowns during that year-long struggle. I don't know what the relationship between the rebels and other players is. It has to be awkward. How do you build harmony out of a situation like that?" Flower tells the world's biggest selling cricket magazine.
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"Looking back now, I am thankful that we were given the opportunity to play against the best in the world. I did not think our domestic cricket was strong enough to sustain the standard required over a long period of time. Now the strength of domestic cricket is even weaker. It has been right to shift to a black player-base, which had to happen in Zimbabwe, but the standard of domestic cricket is not good enough to produce Test players. I think Test matches should be for the best cricket-playing nations in the world. I think Zimbabwe at the moment would lose to a lot of first-class sides. I see that as incongruous."
Flower has not been to Zimbabwe since the World Cup, where his black armband gesture with Henry Olonga earned the pair worldwide recognition. Two years later he's still unsure how wise it would be to return: "I don't know. I haven't been back. The last time I was there was in the World Cup in 2003. I'd love to go and see my friends. But I just don't think it is a thing I can do at the moment," he explained.. "It is possible that it would be dangerous."