Moores positive over vacancy

Peter Moores © Getty Images

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England coach Peter Moores has reluctantly accepted Michael Vaughan’s decision to concentrate on Test cricket and is now looking ahead to “a fresh start” with a new captain of the one-day side.

Moores succeeded Duncan Fletcher at the start of this summer insisting he wanted continuity with Vaughan to lead England in both formats of the game.

Since then Vaughan has elected to focus his energies on Test cricket and the long-term goal of regaining the Ashes in 2009.

Rather than try to dissuade Vaughan from his decision, however, Moores has grasped the opportunity to move forward with a new captain, who will be announced with the squad for the one-day series on Friday.

“As captain and coach we talk all the time and we talked about Test match and one-day cricket and I think Michael had come to that conclusion that he felt the best thing for England from the one-day angle was for him not to play,” explained Moores, who revealed Vaughan told him of his decision three weeks ago.

“I think in an ideal world we all wanted one captain going through both, but life isn’t always ideal and you adapt and adjust to make sure it’s right.

“Once that happened we looked at it differently. There was an opportunity then to look who was going to captain and it’s a bit of a fresh start so it’s chance for us to take that and make the most of it.”

Michael Vaughan will continue as captain of England's Test team © Getty Images

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England have several strong candidates to take over from Vaughan initially in two Twenty20 internationals and three one-day internationals against West Indies.

Moores is set to meet with chairman of selectors David Graveney and fellow selector Geoff Miller at Thursday’s England Lions match against West Indies at New Road, Worcester to finalise their thoughts on the captain and the squad prior to the Friday’s announcement.

“We haven’t made that decision (about the captain) yet,” confirmed Moores. “We’ve talked about the candidates and we’ve got a long way down that process.

“It’s a big decision so we’re going to take as long as we’ve got and now the Test match is finished we can put that to bed and meet up again and go through again what we’ve talked about and make that final decision.”

And Moores expects Vaughan to work well with the new one-day captain as the Yorkshire star continues to lead the Test team.

“In Michael you’ve got a very experienced captain who’s a very good communicator and the one thing that’s slightly different is that he’s promoting the fact that he thinks it’s the best way forward,” said Moores.

“He will be very supportive of the new captain and wants to be supportive in that way. I think we can make it work, I really do and I think it’s a real positive for both sides.

“We know we’ve got the challenge of raising the standard of our one-day cricket because we haven’t been that good at it over the last few years.”