Duncan Fletcher's departure has left England facing a familiar scenario as they contemplate life under a new coach after a wretched World Cup campaign.

It was a similar story in 1999 when former Zimbabwe captain Fletcher, previously coach of county side Glamorgan, was appointed with hosts England demoralised after an even earlier exit.

England may again look to a foreigner, with Sri Lanka's Tom Moody and Bangladesh's Dav Whatmore both in contention.

Moody, a member of Australia's World Cup winning squads of 1987 and 1999 knows the English game well having played for both Warwickshire and Worcestershire before coaching the latter.

The 41-year-old, who lives with his English wife and two children near Worcester, has won a reputation with World Cup semi-finalists Sri Lanka as someone capable of developing young talent such as paceman Lasith Malinga.

Given England's similar need, it is easy to see why Moody, whose Sri Lanka side drew a Test series in England 1-1 last year before completing a 5-0 clean sweep in the one-dayers, is highly regarded.

But he has been strongly tipped to become coach of his native Western Australia after the World Cup.

Whatmore, 53, was interviewed for the England job last time it was available before losing out to Fletcher.

He made his name in charge of the Sri Lanka side that won the 1996 World Cup and has English experience having won trophies when in charge of Lancashire during the late 1990s.

And recently he has won plaudits for his work in nurturing Bangladesh, Test cricket's newest nation.

But with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman David Morgan saying Thursday that a caretaker coach could be in place "within 48 hours" and that they may "appoint quite quickly Duncan Fletcher's permanent successor," England academy chief Peter Moores appears to be in pole position.

The former Sussex wicket-keeper steered the county to their first County Championship title in their 164-year history in 2003.

He replaced legendary Australia keeper Rodney Marsh as head of the Academy two years ago, where he has overseen the progress of rising stars Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad.

This World Cup had already seen the end of Greg Chappell's reign as India coach and John Bracewell, in charge of semi-finalists New Zealand, said Thursday: "World Cups and the pressure that's puts on coaches, there's a lot of us who may have their jobs up for grabs at the end of this tournament."

But the England job remains a coveted post and whoever takes over from Fletcher will inherit a better position than the one he found himself in eight years ago, even allowing for England's recent 5-0 Ashes hammering.

England, booed off the field by their own fans - as happened during their nine-wicket World Cup humbling by South Africa on Tuesday - at The Oval after a 2-1 series defeat by New Zealand left them bottom of the world Test rankings.

But Fletcher identified talented players such as Marcus Trescothick and gave then a chance to establish themselves after a decade of often inconsistent selection.

He was lucky too his time in charge coincided with the advent of central contracts, allowing him an influence unknown to previous England coaches.

Fletcher also improved players' individual skills, England batsmen, for example, becoming far better players of spin under his guidance.

But like many within sport he failed to get out on top, in his case England's 2-1 2005 Ashes series win, their first for 19 years, as the team rose to second in the Test rankings.

However, he was unable to turn around the team's form in the one-day game, a low priority for many within English cricket since the team last reached the World Cup final in 1992.

And, as often happens with once successful regimes, strengths became weaknesses.

That transformation of loyalty into obstinacy was exemplified, for many by England's decision to pick Ashley Giles, one of England's 2005 Ashes heroes but sidelined by injury for a year, for the first Test against Australia in November rather than in-form rival left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said his old adversary could be proud of his record.

"He's obviously done a lot of things right," said Ponting.

"I often heard rumours coming out of their camp that a lot of the players like the way he operated and the way he worked within that team. He can be pretty happy with what he's done."

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)