Moores Lays Out Blueprint for Future

Later this week Peter Moores will celebrate the first anniversary of his maiden Test as England coach and today he felt sufficiently in situ tolay out a bold-sounding blueprint for a future that includes New Zealand in the short term but rather more testing challenges thereafter.

"We've had 12 months now and you start to get a clearer idea of what style of cricket you play," he said ahead of Thursday's first Test at Lord's. "We've been through some changes, so it's much easier to identify what we think is the right way forward for this group of players to become a very successful team. We've won our last two Tests, which is a fantastic place to start the English summer, and we want to play the sort of aggressive, vibrant cricket we think we're capable of."

Though he would not be drawn on the issue, lurking inevitably behind Moores' references to the "journey" his side has been on - two Test series victories and two defeats since he took charge - and the "identity" it has forged, is the need to be battle-hardened for the arrival in 2009 of the Australians. The New Zealanders' previous visit here four years ago proved a catalyst for a run of eight straight wins that paved the way for the successful Ashes campaign of 2005, and Moores may have more trouble in the coming weeks persuading onlookers that minds are not wandering towards next summer as his players will have in disposing of New Zealand.

Asked whether he expected to beat a team that is missing the retired Stephen Fleming from the side England beat 2-1 in New Zealand recently,Moores replied: "Yeah, I do, but we're not going to underestimate them.They're a good bowling unit and they scrap very hard." The truth, though,is that there may not have been a better time to lose the services of Andrew Flintoff, who Moores confirmed would have been in the squad here had he not picked up a side strain playing for Lancashire.

Looking further ahead, Moores said he was uncomfortable with plans to allow players to refer decisions to the TV umpire during the Test series against South Africa in the second half of the summer. "I think the TV referrals should be controlled by the umpires," he said, while stressing his was no more than a personal view. "It's a team sport, and if you put the players in there, it causes confusion."

New Zealand, meanwhile, are preparing for the three-Test series in the knowledge that little is expected of them, but their attack leader Chris Martin did not sound too disappointed by his team's defiantly underdog status. "I know there's a lot of media hype to bring the English team up and people feel they should really stamp on us and destroy us," he said."But they can start to feel the pressure if it doesn't happen, so I suppose you guys are doing us a favor in some ways."