Players have not performed - Downton

Paul Downton has sought to distance himself from England's dismal performance in the World Cup, insisting that "it's not me in the dressing room".

Downton, the MD of England cricket, suggested the players had to carry the bulk of the responsibility for England's early exit, but pleaded for more time before the management team were judged, claiming they inherited a team in transition.

And while he said it was too early to guarantee that the coach, Peter Moores, would keep his job, Downton did state that he had no intentions to sack the man he called "the best coach of his generation" when he appointed him less than a year ago.

"Ultimately all performance comes down to the players," Downton said. "No one else can score runs or take wickets and a lot of players will be disappointed that they haven't performed as they know they can be.

"Peter was appointed only 10 months ago. Whoever was appointed to that position was always going to have a bit of a job. We're in the middle of a very significant rebuilding phase; we offered six new central contracts during the summer.

"I'm not saying everybody's job is safe and I'm not saying that everybody is going to be sacked. It feels as though, from your perspective, there needs to be a scapegoat; there needs to be a target.

"All I'm saying is we're in a position where we're a transitioning side and that will take time. We have to take the right decisions to ensure we do that as quickly and smoothly as we can. But it's too early to say yet in terms of anything definitive - to say he's going or he's not going.

"As far as Peter Moores' ability is concerned, I still feel he is a very high-quality coach. So nothing has changed since we appointed him 10 months ago. You don't become a bad coach overnight, but the scale of the issues we have got to deal with are significant as everybody has seen."

One of those issues, according to Downton, is the lack of domestic cricket played by those in the England team. With the aggression of T20 cricket having an increasing influence in ODI cricket, England's players are - according to Downton - at a disadvantage because their international schedule allows them few opportunities to experience domestic T20 cricket.

"Look at the totals being scored," Downton said. "They've gone up significantly. This tournament has been about getting wickets with the new ball and then, if the batting side can recover and retain wickets at the end, we've seen scores of 100 in the last 10 overs or even 150 in the last 10 overs.

"The impact the T20 game has had on 50-over cricket I think has accelerated in the last year or two. Last summer it was about scoring 300. Now it's about scoring 350 or 400.

"My perception is that what has happened in the last year or two is that the crossover between Twenty20 and 50-over cricket has accelerated enormously. When you look at our guys, very few of them are exposed to Twenty20 cricket, very few play in the domestic tournament, very few play in the international tournaments, so the only exposure they get is playing a few games for England a year.

"That is clearly something we have to look at and we have to address. We have to look at how we can develop a one-day side which is maybe a bit more separate from our Test side. The facts are that we play more Test cricket at home than any other nation and that doesn't allow much time to focus on one-day cricket.

"We have only just reintroduced 50 over cricket into the domestic programme in the last year. In many ways it's no wonder we have underperformed."