June 23, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1428

LONDON, June 22: Durham batsman Paul Collingwood was named on Friday as England's new one-day captain, taking over the reins from his friend and Test captain Michael Vaughan.

Collingwood, 31 takes up the captaincy after Vaughan relinquished it after four years on Monday.

England's chairman of selectors David Graveney said: “The selectors believe that Paul Collingwood's experience and performances in the one-day game make him the ideal candidate to lead the side.

“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 of captaincy.

“Overall, we were keen to identify the best way for the team to play in the one day game, pick players who can perform certain roles and keep one eye on the need to build towards the World Cup in 2011.”

Collingwood, who hit 128 for England's Test side at Durham on Monday against West Indies, told a news conference on Sky Sports News: “As you can probably tell by the smile on my face, it's an absolutely amazing feeling. A great honour.”

“To have a home Test match and get a century, to end the week with the captaincy, and Durham to getting to the final at Lord's, it's just a dream come true.”

Vaughan said on Monday he would continue to play one-day cricket for Yorkshire, but would only look at returning to international one-dayers after giving the new skipper time to establish his authority.

He was not named in a re-shuffled squad to face West Indies in the one-day series.

Collingwood made his one-day debut in 2001 and is an excellent fielder and a useful bowler. He will be expected to add fresh bite to a side who are only ranked seventh in the one-day world, compared to second in Tests.

England flopped at the World Cup, failing to reach the semi-finals and or to beat any of the top sides. The disappointment was all the sharper after a promising tri-series win over Australia and New Zealand in February.

Collingwood, meanwhile, warned West Indies and India to expect a more aggressive opponent when they face his side over the next three months.

Collingwood said he wanted more fight from England, who had a fairly dismal World Cup.

“We've played our best one-day cricket when we've been aggressive, taken the attack to the opposition, been positive when we go out to bat and had plenty of self-belief,” he said.

“One thing's for sure, I'll be allowing the players to go out there and express themselves. That's when you play your best cricket.

As for the captaincy, he said: “It's a great opportunity to take our game to the next level and try to be successful in one-day cricket — to get the consistency in our performances but get the intensity going as well.”

Apart from Vaughan, Andrew Strauss is not in the new-look squad.

Andrew Flintoff, Sajid Mahmood, Marcus Trescothick and Ravi Bopara are all unavailable, while two uncapped players join the squad in Warwickshire batsman Jonathan Trott and Hampshire all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas.

There is also room for five players with limited one-day experience with England — Alastair Cook, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom and Michael Yardy.

Asked about the absentees, Graveney said: “(Vaughan) put his hand up and said I should have played better, we should have played better at the World Cup.

“He said 'I don't deserve to be selected in light of how we played at the World Cup.' He's going back to Yorkshire — (but) he'll be knocking on the door again.

“And I think Andrew Strauss will be doing the same.”

Squad: Paul Collingwood (captain), 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.—Reuters