June 24, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1428

LONDON, June 23: Paul Collingwood, England’s new one-day captain, said on Saturday he wants his new-look squad to ‘attack the opposition’ during the upcoming series against the West Indies.

Collingwood was among the favourites to replace Michael Vaughan, who stepped aside to concentrate on his Test role, more so after Kevin Pietersen – the only other real contender – said he did not feel ready for the responsibility of captaincy.

“We have played our best one-day cricket when we have been aggressive and tried to take the attack to the opposition,” Collingwood said. “I'm not talking about going out there from ball one and trying to whack the ball all over the place. Hopefully we will approach it a bit more positively than in the past.”

Collingwood has little experience of captaincy at any level but reasoned that his time at the top level will help him cope. By the end of the summer, if he remains fit, he will become England's third-most capped ODI player.

“I have got more than 100 caps experience in the one-day game and hopefully that will put me in good stead for what is going to come ahead,” he said. “We'll have to wait and see what kind of a style I develop, but I'll be allowing the players to go out there and express themselves. That's when you play your best cricket.”

England will hope dearly for any kind of upturn in fortunes. Since the 1992 World Cup final, when they were one of the most efficient ODI sides in the world, they have steadily regressed.

Despite the odd shock triumphs – a 1997 tournament win in Sharjah and the CB series at the beginning of this year – as Collingwood acknowledged, “we haven't been a great one-day side for some time now, so it is a great opportunity to take our game to the next level.”

Collingwood's role in the batting order and in the field has been vital to whatever England success there has been and he admitted he had yet to finalise with coach Peter Moores where he will bat.

“I might bat high up or I might be more of a finisher" And whether he remains at backward point will also be looked at.

“We'll have to have a look at the fielding position as well. Backward point is quite a hard position to captain a side from because of the angles and things like that. I've had a little bit of a think about whether I go to extra cover and have people around the ground to help me out a little bit.” —Agencies