ICC: Collingwood focused on helping England in quarters.

PAUL Collingwood

PAUL Collingwood has too much on his mind trying to help England through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup to worry about how long his own international career may continue.

England has never won this competition in nine previous attempts, stretching back to 36 years, and is in danger of leaving before the knockout stages for the fourth successive time. A surprise victory for Holland against Bangladesh in Chittagong could yet change that uncomfortable equation.

On a day it was suggested that captain Andrew Strauss might be about to quit ODIs after this sub-continental campaign - a move understood to be highly unlikely - Collingwood insisted that he was looking no more than four days into the future. He said: “You put the whole thing together, and we’re a formidable team. We want to do that against the West Indies.”

Paul Collingwood acknowledging sheers from fans

England’s problem has been marrying the skills of each of the three disciplines of batting, bowling and fielding. More often than not, one of the above has been off colour and has let the side down.
Collingwood, who is no longer sure of his place as a regular after a worrying lack of batting form for much of this winter, added: “We really need to focus on getting this complete game.
“If we do, we will be very hard to beat for any team. We really have to look at the positives and focus on our strengths.”
As for his own future, Collingwood admits that it will be regrets if he cannot look back one day and say he was involved in a successful World Cup campaign.