A chat with Gatt

Mike Gatting explains why cricket coaching - from Peter Moores to the grassroots - is in rude health.

Gatting hails impact of Coaching the Coaches

As a player Mike Gatting was renowned for the high standards he set on the field. As one of the most prolific batsmen of his day, he made 79 Test appearances for England, including 23 as captain and famously led his country to an Ashes series victory in Australia in 1986/87. Nowadays, Gatting is now tasked with helping to make sure standards are just as high off the field in his role as Managing Director of Cricket Partnerships for the ECB. As part of his work, Gatting attended last week's national Sky Sports Coach of the Year Awards at Lord's, which celebrated the very best in cricket coaching. The ceremony honoured coaches at a local, regional and national level with winners selected from a shortlist of candidates put forward by the 40 County Boards. Having spent the day watching some of the nation's up-and-coming coaches in action, Gatting took time out to chat to skysports.com about the development of coaching in the UK. From grassroots level to the England team he is confident that the quality of coaching is good, but insists there is still work to be done at all levels.

skysports.com: We're here to talk about cricket coaching. Let's start by talking about the most high-profile coach in the country, Peter Moores. What do you make of the job he's been doing for England? Mike Gatting: Peter is actually a pretty low-profile coach; he just gets on with the job that he does. He's a very good worker behind the scenes, he's methodical, he's very clear in where he wants to go and we're heading in a good direction. He's got a plan laid out, which is very good and he works well with the England team. He's also very adept at coming down to the levels below and passing on his thoughts and information to the coaches and the tutors. Kevin Pietersen has been getting plenty of plaudits after his unbeaten start as England captain. What's been the secret of his success? I think Kevin Pietersen has done well but it's all about how the team performs and that has a lot to do with the environment. The environment KP is producing along with the coach is a good one. He's very lucky that Steve Harmison has come back in and performed well and that Andrew Flintoff has been looking good with both bat and ball. When two guys that are so pivotal in the team start performing well it's an awfully good lift for everybody in the team. Without a doubt that's been key to our good performances. How do you see the relationship developing between Moores and Pietersen in the future?
I think it will develop well. When things are going well you must look to improve and keep up the standards you've set. When things start going badly you've got to work together as a team to get it right again, so we'll see. At the moment it's working very well because we're winning and things are looking good. But we've got to go to India and we might see a few problems there because it's a very hard place to tour. India are a very good side with a passionate crowd and it will be different to what some of the guys are used to in the UK. But I'm sure that Peter and Kevin will try to create the right atmosphere, the right work ethic and make