Collingwood England's new ODI skipper
June 23, 2007 00:00:00
LONDON, Jun 22 (Internet): Paul Collingwood was named captain of England's one-day cricket team Friday.
The allrounder succeeded Michael Vaughan, who stepped down after England's lackluster performance at this year's World Cup.
Collingwood was one of the few team's few successes in the Caribbean tournament, scoring 276 runs at an average of 46 from the middle order and taking six wickets with his medium pace.
England never got close to reaching the semifinals at the World Cup. Although it is second only to Australia in the Test rankings, England has slipped to seventh in the one-day standings _ above only West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
Collingwood gets his first chance to lead the one-day team on July 1 when England plays West Indies at Lord's in the first of three matches.
The selectors believe that Paul Collingwood's experience and performances in the one-day game make him the ideal candidate to lead the side,' Chairman of Selectors David Graveney said. ''He has been a key member of the one-day team for a while and we believe he is ready to take on the additional responsibility'', he said.
Vaughan, who is still captain of the Test team, will not be in the side after he was dropped for the series Friday.
Although he is one of the game's most renowned captains and averages 43.65 runs in Tests, he has never hit a century in 86 one-day matches and averages just 27.15 in the short form of the game.
Collingwood has hit four centuries on his 121 one-day matches, with an average of 34.89.
The 14-man squad included two new players in Warwickshire batsman Jonathan Trott and Hampshire all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas. Mascarenhas could play because Andrew Flintoff and Ravi Bopara are out injured.
England squad:
Paul Collingwood, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Jonathan Trott, Michael Yardy.