Apologies for the pun, but I was watching Starship Troopers the other day and you’ll see the link further down

The reason I haven’t been posting much is because of the Cricket World Cup 2007
England have been knocked out and we are into the final week of the competition
The four semi finalists are:
Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa

And with the end of any teams progression we get the resignations of captains and coaches. The following have resigned/retired as at the end of the competition:
The Indian coach, Greg Chappell
Pakistan’s captain Inzamam-ul-Haq
West Indies’ captain Brian Lara
Bangladesh’s coach Dav Whatmore
Ireland’s coach Adrian Birrell
Australia’s coach John Buchannan
and finally England’s coach Duncan Fletcher

There may be more to follow before the end of the competition (and I may have missed some of the others)

India have appointed Ravi Shastri as their new coach
Pakistan have announced Shoaib Malik as their new captain
Ireland’s new coach is former West Indian allrounder Phil Simmons
West Indies are playing their final match today with Brian Lara, so yet to announce their new Captain

England have announced Peter Moores as their new coach initially as “caretaker coach”, though he may take on the job in the long run
The rumour that Tom Moody, currently coaching Sri Lanka (who has married an english woman and coached england county side worcestershire) may want to take up the challenge is unconfirmed but likely to be one of the reasons Peter Moores is a caretaker for the moment
Dav Whatmore has expressed an interest in the India job
Greg Chappell is apparently still going to work with Indian cricket but with the academies
The other coach around is John Wright from New Zealand, who used to coach India. It’s believed that he will look to coach his home country once John Bracewell steps down.
The West Indies coach, Some of those available in addition to those currently in the academies.

So, it’s all change at the top, and I’d like to go back to the title of this piece, Peter Moores – who is he?

He beat Tom Moody to the job of Coach of the National Academy in Loughborough in 2005
Before that he coached the England A team for their 2000-01 winter tour
At the same time he was coaching Sussex County Cricket club in the summer from 1998 to 2003
He played most of his cricket at Sussex (captain in 1997), but also played for Worcestershire and had a season at Orange Free State in South Africa
As a player he was a wicket-keeper batsmen who scored over 7000 first class runs at an average a shade over 24
Highest score of 185: one of his 7 hundreds (he also score 31 fifties)
502 catches and 44 stumpings
In one day cricket he scored over 2500 at 17.7 including 8 fifties. 225 catches and 32 stumpings.
As a coach he comes with a fantastic reputation of getting the best out of players. However, he has limited international experience, but has been responsible for the rise of some of the more recent English players such as Monty Panesar, Jamie Dalrymple, Ed Joyce, Sajid Mahmood and Stuart Broad

There are two reasons as I see it for this interim coach arrangement
1) The England Cricket Board (ECB) is keen to see who else is available yet at the same time ensuring they have a coach for this summer’s test series. Moores is already employed by the ECB so he could return to the Academy if they didn’t decide to appoint him in the long run
2) The Schofield Review of England’s disastrous Ashes tour is due in May and there could be a change in structure and personnel in the ECB

It now appears that the ECB have appointed Moores as permanent coach, but this decision is now being criticised based on how quickly the appointment was made after Fletcher’s resignation