Former England cricket coach Andy Flower is among the second group of coaches to graduate from UK Sport’s Elite Programme.

Flower completed the programme alongside Andy Banks (diving), Ben Bright and Jack Maitland (both triathlon), Greg Baker (para table tennis), Hugh Styles (sailing), Pasan Kularatne (para shooting), Stephen Jennings (Taekwondo) and Stuart Wilkinson (wheelchair tennis).

The scheme was launched by the elite sports quango to take high performance coaching in the UK “from world-class to world-leading”.

The latest batch were the second cohort of participants to graduate after the inaugural group, which included British Gymnastics coach Eddie Van Hoof, graduated at the end of 2016.

A third cohort of coaches – which includes England manager Gareth Southgate – is due to graduate in April 2019.

“Coaches are the crucial backbone of our high performance system and this group will continue to provide world-class support and direction for their athletes, as well as now using the wisdom they have gained on the programme to help us take British coaching from world-class to world-leading,” said Elite Programme coordinator Chris Stott.