By Paul Newman For The Daily Mail

Peter Moores has been treated shabbily by the ECB. The debacle has echoes of the sackings of David Moyes or Martin Jol

Peter Moores replaced Andy Flower as England coach in April 2014

It has emerged that he will lose his job after a little over a year

How very unfair that an enthusiastic, passionate coach and, more importantly, a thoroughly decent man should be treated as shabbily

It seemed everybody knew time had run out for Moores, apart from him

It has echoes of Moyes being the last to know he had been sacked by United or Jol being dismissed by Tottenham during a UEFA Cup match

It was somehow apt that the rain lashed down in Dublin to bring a suitably gloomy end to what has been a stormy second coming for Peter Moores.

All someone had to do at Malahide was offer the helpless coach an umbrella and the analogy of another ‘wally with the brolly’ would have been complete.

How wrong that perception would be and how very unfair that an enthusiastic, passionate coach and, more importantly, a thoroughly decent man should be treated as shabbily as this.

It seemed everybody knew time had run out for Moores to prove that he really does have what it takes to succeed at the highest level.

Everybody, that is, apart from the man who should have known first, the man who, as usual, was doing his utmost to try to win a game for England.

Moores does not deserve this, not even if new director of cricket Andrew Strauss has agreed with the new powerbrokers at the ECB, Tom Harrison and Colin Graves, that now is the time to make a clean break ahead of the Ashes.

Why could the ECB not show a bit of dignity and class, and inform Moores of his fate before he made the long dash from Barbados to Dublin via Gatwick to be at the helm of a new, young, vibrant England one-day side?

It has echoes of David Moyes being the last to know he had been sacked by Manchester United last year or Martin Jol being dismissed by Tottenham during a UEFA Cup match in 2007. Cricket should be better than that.

OK, perhaps the ECB wanted to delay the announcement of Moores’s demise, as well as Strauss’s appointment, but did they think they could get through a one-day international in Ireland without anyone finding out? Do the new regime at the ECB think the media are stupid?

That does not necessarily mean they are wrong to replace Moores. England will start this summer’s Ashes as big underdogs and if they can find a top-notch international coach now, maybe that will improve their hopes.

Yet to watch England closely in the Caribbean was to see a highly promising young team responding to a coach they respected and developing into a tight unit who, crucially, all got on and all wanted to play for each other.

Gossip spread through White Hart Lane as Martin Jol’s last game at Spurs ended in defeat to Getafe

MOORES’ RECORD

W – ODI vs Scotland – May 2014

L – T20 vs Sri Lanka – May 2014

L – ODI series (3-2) vs Sri Lanka – June 2014

L – Test series (1-0) vs Sri Lanka – June 2014

W – Test series (3-1) vs India – Aug 2014

L – ODI series (3-1) vs India – Sept 2014

W – T20 vs India – Sept 2014

L – ODI series (5-2) vs Sri Lanka – Dec 2014

Group stages – ODI World Cup – Mar 2015

D – Test series (1-1) vs West Indies – May 2014

Yes, the defeat in Barbados was horrible but there are going to be setbacks with young players and it just seemed that, after the sacking of Paul Downton, Harrison and Graves were waiting for any excuse to dump Moores. He has been on borrowed time ever since the start of the Caribbean tour.

The woeful World Cup was the cue for Downton’s demise but, again, can he and Moores really be blamed for the state of one-day cricket in England?

It was the ECB who lumbered England with a crammed itinerary that has seen them having to rest their best players from 50-over cricket in the two years since they narrowly failed to win the Champions Trophy.

Of course they fell behind the rest of the world and they will need a separate one-day set-up now to catch up.

Moores, remember, twice took over with England in turmoil after a 5-0 Ashes thrashing. Anyone who expected him to wave a magic wand and make England the best team in the world again overnight was in cloud-cuckoo land.

I would have given Moores the summer so he could have that crack at the Ashes he was denied when he was sacked as coach the first time in 2009.

Moores may have limitations but he can consider himself desperately unlucky that an impatient new regime seem to have made it their priority to get rid of anyone who was appointed by their predecessors.

Moores was due to leave Dublin at lunchtime on Saturday, but after being told that he will be sacked he left on the 10pm flight back home on Friday night.

One thing the ECB have got right is making Strauss the director of cricket, an appointment that it appears will finally be confirmed on Monday.

When Downton was sacked, the ECB intimated they were looking for a football-manager-type ‘supremo’ to be in the dressing room at all times, and new chairman Graves wanted that man to be Michael Vaughan.

Then it became clear it wasn’t feasible in cricket for one man to have total control over captain, coach and selection, and Vaughan, better suited as a supremo, ruled himself out because of ‘limitations’ with the role.

By that time the ECB, with chief executive Harrison to the fore, had already decided to give a job, far more like Downton’s old role than first envisaged, to Strauss. There is no question that he is the right choice. Nasser Hussain or Mike Atherton would have been better but if the ECB could not get them, and sadly they cannot, then Strauss is the next best bet.

There have been few greater achievements in England’s history than their success in winning the Ashes in Australia in 2010-11 and it was very much Strauss, along with coach Andy Flower, who masterminded that.

Strauss had become captain with England in turmoil after the Moores-Kevin Pietersen affair at the end of 2008, and took them from defeat in the Caribbean at the start of 2009 to No 1 in the world and two-times Ashes winners.

Hugh Morris wanted Strauss to take over from him as managing director after the last Ashes but at that time Strauss thought it was too soon after his retirement and the job instead went to Downton. Now is the right time for Strauss.

It is nonsense to suggest that Strauss will somehow be an ‘ECB blazer’ or a yes man who is still close to some of the team, mainly captain Alastair Cook. If Strauss wants Cook out he will make the call, just as he has rubber-stamped the demise of Moores now.

Questions have been asked about Cook’s captaincy but, rightly, it has been decided he should carry on at least until after this year’s Ashes.

In the meantime, the succession process will begin with Joe Root becoming one-day captain in place of Eoin Morgan, who preferred to play in the Indian Premier League than lead out England in his native Ireland.

The best you can say is that Strauss is being given the chance to start with a clean slate and it is his job now to find the best coach, with Justin Langer apparently ruling himself out last night.

While it goes against the grain to see an Australian coaching England, the best man could be Yorkshire’s Jason Gillespie, who hopefully then would make Paul Farbrace, who has made a good impression as Moores’s assistant, his strong right hand. It might just work. Trouble is, someone should have told Moores first.

THREE POSSIBLE CONTENDERS TO REPLACE MOORES

Jason Gillespie

The former Australian fast bowler coached Yorkshire to the county championship last summer. He has worked at county level with both Colin Graves, the incoming ECB chairman, England assistant coach Paul Farbrace, and one-day captain elect Joe Root.

Justin Langer

Now coach of Western Australia, Langer is settled with his young family in Perth and has already been informally anointed as Australia’s next coach by Darren Lehmann. But he has worked closely with Andrew Strauss at Middlesex.

Trevor Bayliss

Another Australian, Bayliss has experience at international level having coached Sri Lanka. He was also on the shortlist for the England job before the ECB appointed Peter Moores. Currently coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.

IMAGES:

Peter Moores leaves the Malahide Cricket Club after the ODI between England and Ireland was abandoned

Moores looks dejected after England lost the final Test to draw the recent series with West Indies 1-1

David Moyes was the last to know about his sacking, just ten months after taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson

Moores, talking to captain Alastair Cook (right), insists he could turn the team around if he was given time

Jason Gillespie (left) and former Australian opener Justin Langer are in the frame to replace Moores

Moores, pictured in Ireland for England’s abandoned ODI, was adamant he can turn around the team’s fortunes

Moores shakes Jonathan Trott’s hand as defeated England leave the field in Barbados last week

Former England captain Andrew Strauss is favourite to become the new director of cricket

England captain Alastair Cook (left) and James Anderson feel the pressure out in the West Indies

For more on this story go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-3074180/Peter-Moores-treated-shabbily-ECB-debacle-echoes-sackings-David-Moyes-Martin-Jol.html#ixzz3ZgFWCjk5