New England cricket coach Peter Moores hints at changes

LOUGHBOROUGH, England (AP) - Michael Vaughan could have played his last game as captain of England's limited-overs team with new coach Peter Moores hinting at changes on Wednesday.


Moores replaces Duncan Fletcher on May 1 and the West Indies starts a four-Test tour 16 days later. England's World Cup squad arrived back Wednesday in London after failing to reach the semifinals.


Moores said he would talk to Vaughan about the team's last six months, but he left open the possibility that England may have different captains in each form of the game.


Vaughan took over the one-day captaincy in May 2003 after Nasser Hussain stepped down after the 2003 World Cup. He took over from Hussain as Test captain in July that year.


"Michael is going to be captain for the first Test, so it's important to speak to him. His reputation as a captain goes without saying," Moores said. "He will have some fairly interesting views on what happened this winter. In an ideal world, it's nice to have one captain, but we'll see."


Fletcher quit after eight years as England coach on April 19, and Moores was appointed a day later.


"I view it very much as a challenge and in many ways, I'm very excited about it," Moores said. "England's just back so I have the chance to speak to some of those players and see what lessons have been learned over the winter."
After the drunken antics of Andrew Flintoff in the Caribbean - the all-rounder went on a late-night drinking binge and reportedly had to be rescued from the ocean at 4 a.m. after falling off a small pedal boat - Moores wants players to police their own discipline.


"Discipline is important in any cricket team because you need to be efficient to get the work done to make sure you can go forward," Moores said. "Discipline is best when it comes from the players themselves and from the environment it's created. Hopefully, that's the sort of environment we'll have in the England team."


Moores, 44, played for English counties Sussex and Worcester as a batsman and wicketkeeper, but never made the step up to international level. He said that would not be an issue.


"Going through the county system, you meet lots of international players and I have never had a player turn round and say it was a problem," Moores said.


Moores started coaching after retiring in 1998. In 2003, he guided Sussex to its first county title in its 164-year history. He was an assistant coach for the England "A" team in 2000-01, before being named director of the national cricket academy in 2005.


Moores said he was confident of England's future despite the ups and downs of the past six months.
England played poorly at the Champions Trophy in India, lost the Ashes series 5-0 in Australia, but then won a triangular series involving Australia and New Zealand for its first overseas one-day title.


However, it disappointed at the World Cup, losing to New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka.
"We have shown over the last 12 months or so we have great players who can play great cricket - the trick is to get them playing great cricket again," Moores said. "I'm very positive because we have some good players. It's been a tough winter and you learn a lot from tough times. We need to learn and move forward."