Peter Moores and Mark Robinson 'double act' in frame to lead England

The Lancashire and Sussex coaches are front runners to succeed Andy Flower

Lancashire coach Peter Moores and Sussex coach Mark Robinson (Getty Images)

The England and Wales Cricket Board is considering appointing a double act of Lancashire coach Peter Moores and Sussex coach Mark Robinson to lead the country into the post-Andy Flower era.

The former Sussex captain and coach Chris Adams, who has worked closely with the pair in the past, said that they are front runners for the post, which has been vacant since the end of January and for which the interviews began today.

"I have heard that there is a notion of putting Moores and Robinson together," Adams said. "They know each other, they're hugely respected and there's a good connect there already. Along with [Nottinghamshire coach] Mick Newell, they're the best three coaches in the country and that combination has legs.

"You could see a combined approach to coaching and a choke back on the many, many specialists in and around the team," Adams added. "You would get two very solid, strong all-round coaching candidates working together.

"You need to put the emphasis and the decision-making onto the players and if you have an army of people in and around the team it's just an easy out for the player not to take responsibility. With Mark and Peter working together, you've got coaches who can cover all bases – and know how to get the best out of an individual."

Moores, who led Lancashire to their first outright County Championship title in 77 years in 2011 and was England coach for a brief spell up until January 2009, and Robinson have a long association dating back to their time at Sussex.

Robinson has coached at Hove since 2005 and was handed the opportunity to lead the England Lions on the tour of Sri Lanka this winter, where his methods proved popular with the players.

The one-day coach, Ashley Giles, had been seen as the natural successor to Flower when the Zimbabwean left his post after the Ashes but he has endured a tough winter as England's one-day coach, culminating in a premature exit from the Twenty20 World Cup last month.

"Ashley has been very unlucky with the circumstances he has inherited but equally he made some fairly obvious and critical errors," Adams said. "At the end of December and the start of January when the team was falling apart, one of the most obvious factors was that there were too many people outside of the playing group.

"When you're selecting teams, the more people you have around the more you're swayed away from your own instinct and your own feeling about what the best XI is. If Ashley was to reflect on his time I would think he would have done more things his own way."

Paul Downton, the managing director of England cricket, will assess the main contenders, who also include Newell and the Australian Trevor Bayliss, the former Sri Lanka coach.

The candidates

Trevor Bayliss Australian who has coached Sri Lanka, 51

Ashley Giles Warwickshire coach, then England's one-day and T20 coach, 41

Peter Moores Lancashire, Sussex and former England coach from 2007-09, 51

Mick Newell Nottinghamshire coach, 49

Mark Robinson Sussex and England Lions coach, 47