Moores backs under-fire Colly

England coach Peter Moores has launched a strong defence of Paul Collingwood's leadership credentials following his suspension.

Kevin Pietersen, 28 this week, will captain England for the first time against New Zealand at Lord's after Collingwood became the first English player to be banned by the International Cricket Council.

He will miss four limited-overs internationals as punishment for England being three overs behind the clock in the fractious one-wicket defeat to the New Zealanders.

His decision not to withdraw an appeal which resulted in a clattered Grant Elliott being run out towards the end of the chase led to a drastic deterioration of relations between the teams - before an apology to the tourists restored peace.

Now Moores hopes the player's image and future prospects have not been sullied by his initial actions.

Moores said: "No, I don't think it's damaged his captaincy. I think the fact he was then prepared to walk into their dressing room straight away and say 'listen fellas, I'm sorry, I don't think I got it right' says something for him."

He added: "It takes quite a big bloke to do that. It was an incident which was unfortunate - in the heat of the battle he did it and the judgement call was it was legit.

"When someone gets picked for England, you pick them because they're made of the right stuff and they uphold the game.

"Paul has done that. We've watched him play a lot for England and we have admired his determination, his grit and the way he goes about his cricket.

"I back him because things happen in sport which you don't plan for and that is one of those things - and sometimes one of the keys is what happens after it happens."

Despite the heated finale to New Zealand's last-ball triumph, which followed accusations of gamesmanship by England from the tourists in a rain-affected fixture a week earlier, Moores maintains his team have not crossed the line on fair play.

He insisted: "I think we've played our cricket fairly all the way through. You should judge somebody by how they go about their game and I think we have seen the England team play their cricket within the spirit of the game. They do.

"We have seen that all the way along through the series and I don't see anything different in that."

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