Andy Moles says he was left with little choice but to resign from his position as New Zealand head coach.

Moles said there was no other position after senior players and others at New Zealand Cricket had questioned his abilities to run the team.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan confirmed on Saturday that they had accepted the 48-year-old Englishman's decision to step down just a third of the way into his three-year contract after the two parties reached an "amicable agreement at mediation" on Friday.

Reports surfaced on Thursday that senior players had raised concerns about Moles' tactical and technical input into the team during a standard post-tour review of the team on their return from their tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

"There was a group of players who had lost confidence in my ability as a coach," said a disappointed Moles.

"This left me really in an untenable position after that had been so widely reported in the media the day before."

Moles said while he held no grudge against the players, he was disappointed that the areas of concern had not been highlighted previously.

"Over the 11 months that I've been around I had no inkling, no communication that there were problems until we got back after the Champions Trophy," Moles said.

"Let me be very clear, it is the players' team, they are the most important thing.

"It is unfortunate that it wasn't raised before and that will be looked at, I'm sure, by New Zealand Cricket going forward.

"If I had got some feedback earlier, we may have been able to quell this problem and been aware of it. Obviously we'll never know because the feedback wasn't forthcoming."

He added: "One of the great challenges as a coach is to try and get the chemistry right between the players and the coach. I will take it squarely on the chin that on this occasion I haven't got the chemistry right."

Vaughan was at pains to stress on Saturday that Moles, who replaced John Bracewell last November and whose contract was not due to expire until after the 2011 World Cup, was not ousted by player power and that others during the review had also voiced their concerns about the former Warwickshire batsman.

"I can categorically say this is not an issue of a group of players coming to me and saying 'get rid of the coach'. That did not happen," Vaughan said.

"We sought the feedback of leading players - as I think is appropriate - when they came back from their tour. We also sought input from other areas, including support staff and management of that Black Caps team. This was not a case of player power.

"Andy viewed the output of that review and felt it was in the best interests that he resign and we supported that decision.

"It's disappointing where we've got to. The outcome today is not one that anyone really wanted."

The New Zealand team leave on Tuesday for a limited-overs series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates without a coach at the helm.

Instead captain Daniel Vettori will take charge for the three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 games in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with Black Caps manager Dave Currie also picking up some of the extra workload.

No time frame has yet been set for when a likely replacement for Moles will be announced.

Vaughan did however suggest that finding a new coach to take charge prior to the Test series against Pakistan in New Zealand, which follows immediately after the matches in the Middle East, was perhaps too tight a timescale.

"We still haven't thought through it enough to understand whether we want a head coach for that series or not," the chief executive said.

"The next series is against Bangladesh in February and that may be a more manageable timeline. That's something we need to review."

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