(Reuters) – Peter Moores, sacked twice as coach of the England cricket team, believes his reputation as being obsessed with data analysis is all wrong and based on a misquote.
Breaking his silence since being dismissed last month, he told the ESPNcricinfo website (www.espncricinfo.com) that he had been wrongly portrayed in the media as a result of an interview given after England’s dismal performance at the World Cup.
Moores said he told a BBC interviewer he would have to look at it “later” which was reported at having to look at “data”.
He admits using the word “data” in an interview with Sky television but says the public were given the wrong impression of him.
“I have to accept my time as England coach has gone,” Moores said. “But I am frustrated. The portrayal of me as a coach in the media is just wrong. I don’t know how to change that.
“I have an official letter from the BBC. It’s a tough one. I didn’t say it. We moved away from stats and data. Coaching doesn’t work like that at all.
“It’s not a numbers game. We kept it simple. We tried to give the players responsibility to lead themselves.”
Moores, 52, was first in charge from 2007 until January 2009. He returned in April 2014 after leading Lancashire to their first County Championship for 77 years but was sacked again 13 months later after Andrew Strauss took over as the new national director of cricket.
The timing of that decision frustrated him, he said in the interview as he believed “a corner had been turned” with four wins, one loss and a draw in England’s last six tests under his stewardship.
However, at the World Cup, co-hosted earlier this year by Australia and New Zealand, England failed to make it out of the group stage, their fate effectively sealed by a humiliating defeat against Bangladesh.
Australian Trevor Bayliss has replaced Moores as England coach and will lead the side for the first time in a home Ashes series against his compatriots starting next month.
