Andy Flower praised the contributions of three recruits from county cricket on his support staff during the recent Lions tour – Chris Silverwood of Essex, Mark Rausa of Glamorgan and Ross Herridge of Nottinghamshire.
“Mark Rausa from Glamorgan and Ross from Notts have also joined us on tour as physio and S&C respectively, following on from Crofton Alexander from Leicestershire in the pre-Christmas training camp.
“We asked Chris Silverwood to join us as an assistant coach on the Lions tour of Sri Lanka, primarily because of his fast-bowling expertise, but also because he’s now quite an experienced all-round coach. And he’s proved really valuable in both those areas. He’s been a really good support to me, someone who I can trust, and it’s been great having another head coach of a county side, after Steve Rhodes from Worcestershire last winter, coming to contribute to our national programme.
"I think they’re really good relationships for us to have with influential county leaders, and it reminds us all that we are in this together doing our best for English cricket. Building those connnections and those relationships with the counties is very much a part of making our game stronger and better connected. We look forward to continuing to use the excellent county practitioners that are available to us.”