My News
12.02.07
The Times - Canniness of Collingwood can be a hit in World Cup
There are a few tricks to winning a one-day tournament. Some are obvious. For a start, you need good players who perform under pressure. You also have to be able to peak at the right time. That is why England are going home with the Commonwealth Bank Series trophy while Australia are having a look at themselves.
When we won the World Cup in 1999, we started slowly. We got ourselves into a position where every game was a final and from then kept winning and winning.
England would like to have begun better, but they saved their best for when it mattered most. The results in Melbourne and Sydney were no fluke.
Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before you start to climb back uphill.
England were embarrassing that week in Adelaide when they were bowled out for 120 and 110. If I had been a fan I might have thrown in the towel. But from there they had nothing to lose and seemed to play with greater freedom.
Paul Collingwood was the big star. As everyone knows, we exchanged a few words during the Test series. He helped me to score some runs with his inspirational comments in the middle and I wondered out loud if he’d ever thought of returning his MBE. But he has my complete respect for the way he fought back on the tour.
He could be the player of the World Cup. He will go to the Caribbean full of confidence and because of his versatility will always be in games. He has made himself into an effective batsman who knows how to play situations. His bowling is a handy option and his fielding is top-drawer.
If I had to pick a turning point in the finals, it would be his catch to dismiss Ricky Ponting in Melbourne. As well as getting rid of our best batsman when he was set, it lifted England in the field. You could see the energy levels rise. There will be bags of opportunities for him in the next couple of months.
Every one-day team needs a bloke like Collingwood. This is his game. He is a bits-and-pieces type player. In the Tests I would have him as back-up as somebody who would do an honest job if needed at No 6 or No 7. England went wrong in the Ashes by thinking that he could go in as high as No 4.
He made a few runs in Brisbane and a double century in Adelaide, but I reckon my son Jackson could have batted on the first two days there and he is only 7.
Conditions were perfect. For the rest of the series he didn’t look like staying in. That makes his batting in the past week all the more creditable.
What impresses me about Collingwood is his determination to play his own game and not try to be something more glamorous. He never tries to impress with big shots or impose himself on the opposition. Knowing what makes you effective is an important skill. He must be a great player to bat with.
The toss in Sydney is always crucial. I think Sydney and Cape Town are the two grounds where the side batting first win most often. The ball nips around as soon as the lights come on and the pitch just gets slower and slower. When England got near to 250 on Sunday, I thought they were home.
But in Melbourne, Australia collapsed like I cannot remember for a long, long time. To lose six wickets for 23 runs at the end was a bit of a shambles. Watching on TV, I didn’t see that coming. I can understand why Ricky felt so annoyed about it afterwards.
In a funny way I reckon this will help Australia. They are still the best one day team in the world. A kick up the backside will give them a timely reminder that if they don’t play well, they are going to be beaten. It only takes one or two guys to change a one-day match and you have to be on guard to stop them.
Andrew Symonds is a huge loss, but the cover is there. The problem this time was that Brad Hogg and Shane Watson did not have much rhythm of playing cricket behind them. Those positions at No 7 and No 8 are crucial. I think that the side will be pretty much the same when the World Cup begins.
One bloke I’m not worried about is Glenn McGrath. He dropped a catch in Melbourne.
So what? We’ve all done that. And sometimes -as my English friends still point out -it can be costly. But who knows what would have happened if he’d held that one from Ian Bell? Flintoff may have come in earlier and hit a hundred.
It seems to have gone unnoticed that McGrath was actually the leading wicket taker in the series, with 13. He has had a good summer and he bowled well a couple of days ago. He will be there at the World Cup. And he’ll bowl well again.
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