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Flower: Boos won't affect KP
10:45, Dec 1 2009
Andy Flower is confident the boos will continue to bounce off Kevin Pietersen - even though he believes the behaviour of the South African crowds is "sad".
Pietersen has had to contend with hostile receptions at each venue in the ongoing one-day international series, and the boos and whistles were especially noisy when he walked out to bat and off again after a short innings of three at Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
"I think there's a bit of the pantomime villain scenario," the England coach said of a player who chose to leave his native country in search of a shot at international cricket elsewhere. "I think he's used to that sort of reaction. I really don't think it affects him."
While Pietersen's quest to regain his best form is one of the fascinations of a high-profile tour, Flower believes he has made a shrewd acquisition to help all England's batsmen.
Former England captain Graham Gooch, already in Pretoria with the Performance Programme squad, has been recruited as a specialist batting coach.
Flower explained: "In my present role, I'm not finding the time to work one on one with players like I used to - so I need some help in that regard.
"I couldn't ask for a better bloke to come in and help with the batting than Goochie.
"I know him very well from Essex and I rate him very highly as a coach, as a man, a cricketer - and I was very, very happy that when I asked him to join us he was dead keen."
Flower is hoping Gooch, set to stay with the squad initially only for the first match of a four-Test series at Centurion, will be on hand regularly in the future.
"I've got the utmost respect for him. He will bring a lot of experience, a lot of expertise, competitive spirit and patriotism," he predicted. "He'll be a great guy to have around. But he's quite a busy guy with other commitments, and I don't think we could get him full-time."
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