KEY POINTS:
Don't blame Andy Moles for being fourth or fifth choice Black Caps coach. What else was he to do? At the very least it shows he's serious about the job and wanted it. In fact, it is fair to say he wanted it more than the others.
It's unfair to judge him negatively simply because many fans and media were plumping for other, more high-profile possibilities. Judge him after he's had time enough in the job to have an effect.
The reality is New Zealand Cricket cannot afford high profile, proven international coaching personnel. As we are a less-than-stellar cricket nation we are unlikely to attract them even before the pay packet is disclosed. However, that does not necessarily mean we cannot expect Moles to be an excellent coach.
Former great players do not necessarily make great coaches. Coaches with a history of international success with one team may not immediately translate to success with another.
Moles obviously moved to New Zealand to coach at the provincial level with a view to coaching a test-playing nation and he has achieved that. He is a coach on the up and I'm hoping the enthusiasm that he will bring will come with advantages a coach on the sideways or downward shift can't provide.
Moles does not bring with him an international playing pedigree but he was a solid first-class performer with Warwickshire and, by all accounts, a hard-working grafter.
I'd imagine he's had to work a lot of things out for himself as a player and if he can relay some of the lessons he's learned to our extremely talented and potential-laden young team, then he should get results. A little bit of graft and workmanlike quality is just what our top six could do with right now if we want to see more of them at the crease.
Moles has no hesitation in stating he got the best out of himself and his challenge is to get the best out of our Black Caps - and thus produce cricketers far superior to himself. Some of the best coaches around the world fall into this category.
There is no better time to take on the challenge of coaching the Black Caps. There is a relative amount of belief in their ODI play - and that will continue - but as for Twenty20 and test cricket, the only way is up. He has a wonderful, talent-laden canvas to work with, especially in his area of expertise of batting.
He appears to be different in personality to former coach Steve Rixon but I see similarities in the team Moles inherits.
Rixon did a great job in the late '90s by taking a team with strong personalities and star qualities, moulded them together as a unit, gave them a little grit and developed a fledgling captain in Stephen Fleming. When he handed them on, they were a team with a high degree of self-empowerment.
If there is one thing I'd like to see Moles achieve with the Black Caps it is that same sort of player empowerment and self reliance.
