Struggling Paul Collingwood calls time to his test career
English middle-order batsman Paul Collingwood has announced his retirement from test cricket as his team closes in on a historic 3-1 win over their greatest rivals, the Australians. The captain of the national team in the shortest format
of the game T20 claimed that he had thoroughly enjoyed his test career especially the win in Australia which was the first in 24 years for the English team on the soil of their enemy.
"In many ways it's a sad moment, but I honestly think it's the right time, and in many ways it's the perfect moment," said Collingwood. "This is what I've been playing the game of cricket for, to be in a position against Australia in Australia
like this. I know I haven't contributed with the bat in this series, but I'm a very, very happy man."
Collingwood who is 34 years old knows very well that his test career cannot really go forward for a long time especially in the presence of some talented youngsters notably Eoin Morgan, the Irishman who was cooling his heels on the side-lines
when the Ashes campaign was in full swing.
The stoic batsman was not at his best at all in the series accumulating an extremely discouraging tally of a mere 83 runs in the whole Ashes campaign including a woefully frenetic innings of 13 on the third day at Sydney as the English
team amassed a record tally of 644 runs in their only innings of the match.
At the end of his innings, Collingwood made up his mind that he was not going to play the longest format of the game anymore as he had lost the knack of scoring runs and gave his way to the upcoming youngsters in the team.
He stressed that he thoroughly enjoyed his run at the highest format of the game which were full of some incredible moments starting from the incredible triumph in the 2005 Ashes series win where Collingwood played the last match of the
series.
"This series has been a special series for me," he said. "I think 2005, playing at The Oval, was a special game, and a special moment, but although I haven't scored the runs out here I can barely take the smile off my face. It's been something
that I've been waiting for, for a long time. The last time we were here four years ago, I actually managed to score runs and we got beat 5-0. This time I much prefer it this way around, let me tell you!"
"Honestly, this team can go as far as they want to. As you can see from this series, our batting has gone from strength to strength”.
The Sydney test is the 68th of Collingwood’s career before the current test he had played 67 games and amassed a tally of 4246 runs at a healthy average of 40 runs per innings. His best moment with the bat was during the ill-fated
Ashes campaign in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 four years ago.
The defiant batsman scored 206 runs in the second test match at the Adelaide Oval yet his heroics went in vain as the tourists crashed to an ignominious defeat on the last day of the match which was made possible after a spectacular collapse
was engineered by the rampant Aussie bowlers.
This time around, the test with the bat was hardly as tough as the one four years ago, the Aussies lacked experience, guile and sheer quality of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Brett Lee who were at the top of their games then.
After quitting test cricket, Collingwood has set his eyes on the ODI series and the World Cup that is scheduled to start in the sub-continent from next month.
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