Moores relishing Academy challenge

After two weeks in his new role as the ECB's National Academy director, Peter Moores is relishing the challenge of continuing the excellent work of his predecessor Rod Marsh.

"From what I've seen in my two weeks here, this is a fantastic facility," said Moores. "It's got the lot from what I can see so far. We've had a fantastic Ashes year and you can be guaranteed the Australians will be trying to move their game forward and it's important we do that and we start to try and help the players plan ahead - we shouldn't concentrate on where they need to be now, but where they need to be in 12 or 18 months time."

While coach at Sussex, Moores watched players like Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Strauss, Steve Harmison and Ian Bell emerge from the Academy and is positive he will be successful in producing more players of the same calibre. "The Academy is a fantastic challenge," he said. "To work with different players, very talented players and try to make a difference in English cricket was a huge draw for me. County cricket is something I love and I think it's growing quickly and it's been a fantastic experience.

"For a coach it's good because you deal with a lot of players in a lot of different situations because you play so much cricket. This is a different deal altogether and I'm hoping to bring all my experience from that here and it's also a new learning opportunity for me."

Moores believes the basics of coaching county players and the higher standard of talent at the Academy are similar: "To try to help players make the game simple in their minds is no different and sometimes when people move up a level you have to try is make sure they don't over-complicate things and they need something different.

"The key for coaching is the same - you don't do it, the player does it. You try to create opportunities for learning but the player is the main person. Players often know what they want so you try to lead them down that path and they start to identify the areas they need."