England must go for Flower power or Ashes dreams will turn to dust

Within a few days the destiny of the England side will be decided. A panel of what might be described as hand-picked experts will interview a very short short-list of candidates for the job of team director. At stake will be this summer's World Twenty20 cup and Ashes, and many Twenty20 cups and Ashes series beyond that.

This time the feeling is that the experts must get it right or risk alienating an increasingly disenchanted public for a long time. Not that anybody knows who they are. They seem to be anonymous experts versed in various skills connected with cricket, leadership and vision.

It has taken a firm of highly paid (presumably) headhunters to reach this point. If it seems an unnecessarily unwieldy process, it reflects the determination to leave no ball unbowled or stroke unplayed in this global search. England have been flailing around in a pit of mediocrity and under achievement for much too long – for four years since the annus mirabilis of 2005 to be precise.

Admirable though the intentions have been, the quest may, indeed should, end up much closer to home. The man to help to take England forward is sitting right under their noses.

Andy Flower's prospects of being appointed were hardly hindered by England's clinical victory on Friday evening to clinch the one-day series against West Indies. It might have been only one win in a shortened limited-overs match at the end of a bitterly disappointing winter but it showed England in a good light. They had kept going to the end, desperate to make a point.

So they rebuilt their innings after faltering in the middle order and then produced a sterling bowling effort. If Andrew Flintoff's 5 for 19, including a hat-trick, propelled them to a runaway win, the efforts of others were no less important. This was an England playing hard-nosed cricket at a moment of extreme pressure.

At least part of that must be down to Flower, who has been perpetually impressive as man and coach during a difficult tour. It began in disarray when the team's previous coach, Peter Moores, and captain, Kevin Pietersen, were removed from office because their relationship had broken down. The stories they left behind of an acrimonious dressing room may have been exaggerated but they had substance nevertheless.

Flower and the new captain, Andrew Strauss, have forged a trusting bond. They probably do not agree on every little thing but they have a shared vision of how the team should progress based on hard work in training and individual responsibility.

Strauss has been increasingly enamoured of Flower and in the wake of Friday's victory was asked once more to assess his contribution. "It's not my decision to make, it's the ECB's," he said. "All I can say is that I have worked very well with him and I don't think he has put a foot wrong all tour. He has been a fantastic help to me and I hope our relationship can continue.

"The ECB are the only ones who know who the candidates are and they have to sift through those and decide who the best man for England is moving forward," Strauss added. "I hope that they take my views into account but they look at things from a different point of view sometimes. I think from all of our points of view [it's best if] the situation is cleared up sooner rather than later."

If Flower had asked for a testimonial, and he had not, he could not have wished for it to be couched in more glowing terms. But he has provided his own more estimable one by the way England have conducted themselves. The wheels were ready for falling off when England left for the Caribbean in January and, when they lost the First Test in Kingston, there was the sense that they would soon career off course. There were some awful moments to come and they could not finish off West Indies in two Test matches they should have won.

Some of their cricket in the one-day series was horrible. But Flower and Strauss held true to their principles and had victory to show for it. It would be a mistake to think that West Indies are particularly strong, they are not, but they are tougher and more disciplined than they have been for 10 years. They were worth defeating on their own soil.

Flower was as enthusiastic about Strauss as Strauss had been about him. "I honestly believe that he will be a very good captain for England," he said. "He has done really well on this tour. He's a strong man and the way he led from the front with the bat and in the field and when he speaks is the way a leader should lead in my opinion. So I think he is going to be very good for English cricket."

There are the solid foundations for a mutual appreciation society here but that is no bad thing. It is perhaps the misfortune of the other candidates that they are not in Flower's position. But then Flower's position could have been much different. He was an assistant coach when he was asked to take over amid the new year turbulence and if disaster had ensued there would be no interview next week.

So effective has been the ECB's screening process that it is pure speculation to name other candidates. Many indeed have been named and then denied interest. But one of Flower's rivals may be John Wright, the New Zealander who coached India so effectively. Wright would be a strong candidate but he is not the right one.

Flower said: "I have got my ideas about what I want to say in the interview but the decision is out of my hands. I will speak honestly in it and see what they decide." It will not be easy and it may often be painful because England remain moderate. But Flower and Strauss are the men to lead them to sunlit uplands.