In Sympathy: Peter Moores

You’ll no doubt have heard by now that Peter Moores will be sacked as England’s head coach next week. Andrew Strauss’ first act as MD will be to dismiss the man who should never have been appointed in the first place.

This is surely – and finally – the end of Moores’ international career. Not even an administrator as out of his depth as Paul Downton would bring Moores back for a third go.

Although we opposed Moores’ retrograde and nonsensical return in the first place, he actually has my sympathies today. He seems like a decent man, doing his best, who has the best interests of English cricket at heart. Although Moores made mistakes, it wasn’t his fault he received the hospital pass of the year when he replaced Andy Flower after the Ashes.

Moores was in a tricky situation to say the least: the team had lost important senior players, morale was low, and players were apparently confused and divided over the controversial sacking of Kevin Pietersen. The media storm that followed made things even harder and ramped up the pressure to unbearable levels.

Neither was Moores helped by the remaining senior players: Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad and even James Anderson have struggled for form at times. Had Moores enjoyed better support from his most experienced performers, perhaps the story would have ended differently.

Having said all that, part of a coach’s job is to maximise performances from his players. The senior guys floundered during Moores’ first stint in charge of England back in 2007; unsurprisingly perhaps, history has repeated itself.

What’s more, the development of England’s younger players has been mixed: Buttler, Root and Ballance have all come on well, but Finn, Stokes, Robson and to a lesser extent Jordan have gone backwards. Moeen Ali started well, but has since experienced mixed fortunes.

It was Moores’ job to create an environment in which England players could thrive. Paul Downton thought Moores was the man to do this, but results prove he has failed – no matter how much the players reportedly like him.

Perhaps Michael Vaughan and others are right in their assessment of Moores: his intense, hands-on style would be better suited to coaching young players at a more junior level. Moores is a good coach in the wrong place – and he came along at a terrible time.

Moores’ lack of international experience possibly counted against him. England’s strategies often seemed idiotic: who can forget Liam Plunkett bowling around the wicket at Sri Lanka’s batsmen at Lord’s? It was ball after ball of needlessly macho dross, pitched far too short, with the apparent aim of unsettling some of the finest batsmen in the world. The fact it was a slow pitch, with as much life as an English political party in Scotland, seemed to escape England’s management entirely.

The turning point of last summer’s series against India came when Anderson and Broad ignored team instructions and bowled as they saw fit. Liam Plunkett also started to pitch the ball up and finally took wickets. All too often, however, England looked bereft of ideas under Moores. Cook’s captaincy didn’t help, but it wasn’t all the skipper’s fault.

Fast forward a few months and Moores talked enthusiastically about England’s chances in the World Cup. He wasn’t concerned when Rohit Sharma scored a double century in the weeks before the tournament. Australia would be different we were told. Two new balls on bouncy wickets would often require caution at the start of innings.

Once again Moores got things hopelessly wrong. Scoring rates in the World Cup were good, the best sides were those that attacked, and the inexplicable decision to bring Ballance into the side for the first game (while demoting Woakes and giving Broad the new ball) backfired spectacularly and unsettled the side. England’s strategy was muddled and ineffective.

On the recent tour to the Caribbean, there were additional failures of imagination and errors of judgement. One could see why England recalled Jonathan Trott, and decided against picking Adil Rashid, but in hindsight they were wrong. Whenever there was a 50:50 call to make, you could trust England to chose the wrong option.

Although we’ve learned that Moores’ penchant for data has been overdone – Michael Atherton for one has argued that other teams use computer analysis far more than England – the image of Moores as a desktop dependant ditherer ultimately became a noose around his neck.

But despite all these mistakes, nobody deserved the humiliation Moores suffered today in Dublin. As England’s bowlers made inroads into Ireland’s top order, news began to circle that Moores’ time was up. I use the word ‘circle’ but the most accurate word could be ‘leaked’. Have the ECB done it again?

As the rain fell at Malahide, the term ‘an absolute shower’ wasn’t far away from my thoughts. When the ECB officially (and finally) announce Moores departure, they’ll no doubt describe him as a man of decency and integrity. I hope the ECB show half that integrity in their dealings with the outgoing coach.

That the news about his sacking emerged in the middle of a televised game, with the cameras on Moores, as he tried to do his job, was embarrassing and unsettling. Nobody deserves to be treated like this.

There has always been mismanagement in sports. The FA and the RFU are much-criticised organisations, while the NFL commissioner is regularly booed because of the way he handles controversies – gamedayr.com has an interesting take on the recent scandal involving the New England Patriots. However, none seem to leak as badly as the ECB.

For an organisation that expects its employees to uphold high standards, ostensibly reveres team culture, while valuing people’s upbringing and doing things the right way, it would be shoddy and hypocritical if the ECB have leaked this news.

Just as it was with Kevin Pietersen, we can all debate whether Moores’ sacking was the right or wrong decision. However, if the news has been leaked – whether intentionally or inadvertently – we can all agree it’s been handled appallingly.

Good luck in whatever you do next, Peter.

James Morgan

@DoctorCopy