Paul Collingwood Wants Vice Captaincy
Former England one-day cricket captain Paul Collingwood has revealed that he would like to be vice-captain to new leader Andrew Strauss.
Durham batsman Collingwood resigned last August at the same time as Michael Vaughan stepped down as England's Test captain.
England have gone through a more recent period of upheaval with Kevin Pietersen being ousted as captain following his rift with former coach Peter Moores but Collingwood has suggested that his captaincy experience could be valuable to Strauss in the current tour of the West Indies. "Of course, I would be interested," said Collingwood.
He said "Obviously I am a senior member of the side now and my role is as big as at any time".
And also said "We haven't got a head coach and you want to set the right example, so if that opportunity came around I would look at it and consider it again. "But I want to be able to go out and 100% concentrate on my game. It is hard enough with the technique I've got, I guess, playing and trying to succeed without thinking of too many other things. "Straussy will need a lot of help over the next few weeks from the senior guys, and I will certainly put my hand up if that is what he wants."
England do not have a policy of appointing vice-captains but they may feel the need to do so during this trip, particularly in the limited-overs section of the 11-week tour, which includes five one-dayers and a Twenty20 contest.
Despite a difficult six weeks which included England agreeing to return to India for two Tests before Christmas after terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the Pietersen-Moores row, Collingwood believes the dressing room will be unified for the West Indies series. "You can make more of a situation than it actually is and what you will discover - from our body language and hopefully from the results on the pitch - is how close we actually are as players," he said.
Paul said that "The main rift was between Kevin and Peter Moores and once it was in the public eye there was no going back. "You obviously want to get these situations sorted in-house, that wasn't the case, and obviously everything escalated from there. "It was a strange period, we had got home for Christmas and were looking forward to relaxing and spending time with the family. "But everybody was talking about cricket when usually it's football at that time of the year.
Continues in interview he said "Now everybody wants to get back on the field and play cricket again. It's a fresh start for us. We are all in it together. "We have lost a captain and a coach and there is a lot more responsibility on our shoulders now as players to go out there and put on performances on the pitch. "When you haven't got a head coach it is up to you to do that, and I think everyone will respond well to that."
by: Sarfaraz Khan