Moores hits back at 'data' criticism

Peter Moores has rejected claims he is a stats-driven coach and insisted the England side he led was making progress.

In his first interview since he was sacked as England coach for a second time, Moores dismissed the public perception of him as "just wrong" and spoke of his "frustration" at the decision to remove him just as the team "turned a corner".

Moores did not give any interviews after he was sacked as England coach at the end of 2008. But this time, incensed by his portrayal in the media, he has given two interviews - one of them to ESPNcricinfo - in an attempt to put the record straight.

He is particularly frustrated at the aftermath of a BBC interview in which his words were misheard and then misreported. Specifically, when he said the word "later", it was reported as "data" and used to support the theory that he was obsessed by statistics and that his overly analytical methods prevented England's young players from expressing their talents freely.

Moores has now revealed that the BBC have apologised to him and, so little did England use "data" during the World Cup, it was briefly feared that their analyst, Nathan Leamon, would go home in frustration.

"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. If people said 'I don't rate you as a coach' then fine. But when it's not what you are, it's really frustrating.

"I don't know how to change that. I've not spent my life trying to be really good with the media; I've spent it trying to make players better. I still passionately want to do 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. You watch a lot to say a little. It's not a numbers game. We kept it simple. We tried to give the players responsibility to lead themselves."

Moores also expressed frustration with the timing of his sacking. While he conceded England's World Cup campaign had been dire, he pointed to a run of four wins, one loss and a draw in England's last six Tests as evidence that "a corner had been turned". He had, he pointed out, inherited a team that had just lost five Tests in a row.

"In Test terms, we felt we had turned a corner," Moores said. "We were getting there. Would I have been sacked had we won in Barbados? You'll have to ask the people who made the decision. I was aware that things were building but I wasn't expecting it.

"The frustration is not being able to carry something through. When I took the job, I knew we would go through this period of trial. And transition is difficult. You will lose sometimes. But in Tests we were moving and moving quite fast. You could see it happening. Young players were developing fast. And you know there is a time frame for that.

"I'm also confident in my ability to evolve teams to become very good teams. And, given time, I've always gone on to be successful. So to not have time to finish the job with England... I thought we were getting there. I was genuinely excited when we got back from the Caribbean."