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Moores: Money distracted England

03/11/2008

England coach Peter Moores has suggested England may not send its national team to contest the remaining four big-money Stanford Super Series matches.

His side slumped to their lowest ever Twenty20 score in the $1 million (£610,000) per man on Saturday, humiliating themselves in the process as Chris Gayle's side took the cash.

Moores is concerned the issue of playing for personal gain over the honour of representing England confused his players.

"Every time you play for England it is about playing for England but the whole issue of money was in people's heads," he said.

"Maybe that didn’t hit some of the guys really until after the game was played. People talk about focus in sport and I don't know if we were as absolutely clear as we could have been."

England were bowled out for 99 after Kevin Pietersen won the toss and elected to bat, falling well short of their previous worst score of 135 against Australia.

As the failure sinks in Moores admitted he is considering scrapping the England shirt for next year's Super Series.

"It's going to be reviewed," he told the BBC. "If a change helps people get their heads around why we're here, fine."

Pietersen, who has already spoken of his disappointment after losing out on the win, praised the victors and said it was "fantastic" to see their elation at winning.

"The West Indies guys have been here for six weeks, they did a fantastic job, so hats off to them," he said.

"They wanted it so much, they had their plans right and we were outplayed by a team which was more hungry.

"You bump your head and you learn from it. We bumped our heads."