Andy Moles has resigned as the coach of New Zealand, New Zealand Cricket has confirmed. Moles' position became untenable after questions about his abilities were raised by senior players during a standard review following the recent tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in South Africa.
Englishman Moles, whose contract ran through to the 2011 World Cup, went into mediation with NZC on Friday and the result is that the former Warwickshire batsman will not be with the Black Caps side when it departs on Tuesday for a limited-overs series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
This outcome was no surprise given the events over the past week that led to mediation on Friday amidst reports of unrest in the camp over Moles's abilities as coach of the side.
His position was hardly helped by a less than ringing endorsement from captain Daniel Vettori, who when asked if the players were happy to have Moles continue, replied with "I guess we'll have to be".
NZC have denied that the decision was as a result of player power but it does open the debate again about the value of a coach to a side, with it seemingly a rarity that a coach is able to come in, command the respect of a side and visibly affecting the performance.
In a sport such as cricket, it is the captain rather than the coach that is the de facto leader of the group, responsible for on-field tactical decisions and approach (something Michael Vaughan also alluded to) and this issue of control was the one that of course resulted in the departure of Kevin Pietersen as England captain.
Shane Warne was often sceptical of the methods of John Buchanan during his time as coach of Australia (referring to the role of coach as little more than an administrator), yet Buchanan was fortunate that he presided over the one of the most dominant sides in cricketing history.
Unfortunately for Moles, he did not have that luxury, and given the security of Vettori's position in the set-up (having recently been added as a selector), Moles was never going to survive.
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