25 Nov 2008

Black Caps' new coach won't accept excuses

6:47 pm on 25 November 2008

Englishman Andy Moles has pledged to develop a young and inexperienced New Zealand cricket team after being confirmed as coach.

The former Warwickshire opener has coached Northern Districts for the past two and half years and will replace John Bracewell next week before the West Indies series starts in Dunedin.

He says if New Zealand's current test ranking of seventh is to improve batsmen are going to have to gain the confidence to bat for much longer than they have been lately.

And Moles says they also need to understand test centuries can't be scored in three hours and usually require five or six hours.

He says he's confident he can get batsmen to believe in themselves.

Moles says they played when they were young because they enjoyed cricket and he wonders whether one or two don't enjoy it now as much as they should.

He says although the team's rebuilding he won't accept excuses for underperformance.