Peter Moores has been tasked with saving Nottinghamshire from relegation nearly eight weeks after being sacked as the England coach.
The genesis of the eye-catching move for 52-year-old Moores, planned by Mick Newell and Lisa Pursehouse, the club’s director of cricket and chief executive respectively, came during the innings defeat by Yorkshire at Headingley last week that plunged the east Midlands county to the bottom of Division One halfway through the campaign. His arrival as a coaching consultant on a three-month deal was announced in the home dressing room at stumps on the second evening.
Newell, who served under Moores and remains an England selector, has arguably put his own position under scrutiny by drafting in the first coach to win the Championship with two different counties. The pair begin working together on Friday, with Newell retaining his hands-on duties rather than relinquishing them to sit upstairs.
Explaining his rationale for the revamp, Newell said: “I’ve been doing this for 13 years now. I felt there was a need for fresh ideas and voices in the dressing room. A lot of those players have had to listen to me for a long time. You start to wonder if you’re having a positive influence on the team. We felt it was a good time to shake it up and bring someone new in. It seemed a no-brainer.”
Moores’ teenage son Tom plays for Nottinghamshire’s second XI and the family live 20 minutes down the road in Loughborough, providing a perfect geographical fit. Although the new set-up will work across all cricket, it is a move designed primarily to boost the county’s flagging four-day fortunes – they began this round of matches two points from safety – and, if successful, it could develop into something permanent.
“We’ll reassess at the end of September. Has it worked? How do we want to go forwards and what is best for the players? Going forward from here, I’m very much responsible for the selection of the team. He doesn’t want anything to do with that,” Newell added.
“Building teams and working with players excites him as a coach. He can come here with no shackles and do what he likes doing. This team is looking for something and we hope it’s the start of something to boost us. The players were a bit surprised but I hope it inspires them. Players who want to improve will thrive under him.”
Those players certainly showed improvement on the second day against Worcestershire after an underwhelming opening to the match. If application was lacking in Nottinghamshire’s first innings, there was not a bit of it on their return as they tackled adversity with such commitment that Worcestershire were able to muster a useful but, ultimately, narrow lead.
Ben Hilfenhaus and Brett Hutton bowled their own overs and remarkably covered those of Luke Fletcher, who will be sidelined for a month with a hamstring injury, and Andy Carter, ruled out at the end of day one because of a side strain, and ruled back in on the second morning by himself with the aid of much strapping, too.
Unable to bowl until 11.55am because of his previous absence from the field – and only able to do so at about 75% thereafter – it was fitting that Carter should finish off the innings with the dismissal of Saeed Ajmal.
There appeared to be times when the Australian import Hilfenhaus simply shunned his captain’s instructions to come off. Samit Patel, meanwhile, wheeled away from the other end, denying Richard Oliver a hundred by the narrowest of margins to begin Worcestershire’s demise from 160 for two to 283 all out.
One of the casualties was Alex Gidman, forced to retire hurt after being struck on the helmet by a Hilfenhaus bouncer. Gidman received lengthy treatment and initially continued before appearing to lose his balance and slumping on to his haunches after facing one more ball from Patel.
It is odd in this day and age that the England and Wales Cricket Board does not have a clear directive for cases of concussion – it certainly should have – so Worcestershire will make their own call on whether Gidman takes any further part in the match. It appears unlikely.
“Our policy is always to look after our players as best we can, that means getting them checked over straight away,” said the Worcestershire director of cricket, Steve Rhodes. “We took him out of the battle and don’t want to risk him. His colour is coming and going and for some periods he feels better than others.”
Honours finished even by virtue of three evening-session wickets for the visitors and a hamstring injury to the unbeaten James Taylor, who will have a scan and will continue his innings with Alex Hales as his runner. That pair know Moores – removed from his second tenure as England coach on 9 May – well and events on the third day will dictate if he inherits a team inside or outside the relegation zone.
