Scots on alert as Collingwood calls time
● All-rounder on radar to replace Bradburn after 23 years at Durham
Paul Collingwood was immediately linked with the vacant Scotland head coach’s role after calling time on his playing career yesterday.
The former England allrounder announced his retirement from all forms of the game after 23 seasons with Durham. His decision comes just a week after New Zealander Grant Bradburn quit the Scotland job for a new role with Pakistan.
Collingwood has already had two successful spells with the Scots, assisting Bradburn as the national side won the 2014 World Cup Qualifier and again at the tournament itself the following year.
A source close to the Scotland squad said: “Colly had a big influence on the team and was a popular figure around the dressing room. He had a really positive influence on the players.”
He is due to be a member of England’s backroom coaching team this winter but it is thought he would jump at the chance to come north of the border as head coach.
Collingwood feels he is retiring at the right time. Durham’s final County Championship fixtures at Leicestershire and at home to Middlesex would be his last as a professional.
The 42-year-old made his first-class debut for his hometown county in 1996 and his superlative career has encompassed nearly 900 matches in all formats.
He was described by Durham as their “greatest ever run scorer and most illustrious player” and even though the body was willing to continue,
0 Paul Collingwood has already had two successful spells with Scotland, assisting Grant Bradburn.
PAUL COLLINGWOOD he felt it was the correct decision to bow out for both himself and the club.
“All I ever wanted to do when I was a kid was to play cricket and to be able to do it professionally over many years has literally been a dream come
true,” Collingwood said. “It’s been a great ride.
“I can safely say I’ve got every single ounce of talent out of my body over the years and I can hang my boots up and be quite proud of what we’ve achieved as a county and what I’ve achieved as a player. It was emotional telling the boys that I was going to retire, it wasn’t the best speech I’ve ever made because I was pretty much crying all the way through it but it’s just the right time.
“Physically I could have gone on until I was about 60! But I realised that the time is right for myself personally and for the club to move on and get a new leader in the dressing room to move the club forward. I’ve got no regrets whatsoever.”
A three-time Ashes winner and the only man to captain England to a global trophy after leading them to glory in the 2010 World Twenty20, Collingwood’s international career comprised of 68 Tests, 197 one-dayers and 36 T20s.
At one stage, he was England’s leading ODI run-scorer of all-time with 5,092 before being surpassed, first by Ian Bell and then Eoin Morgan, although he remains their most capped player in the format. When asked to choose a career highlight, Collingwood, who amassed more than 10,000 runs in all formats during his international career and took 144 wickets with his medium pace, replied: “It’s got to be the Ashes in Australia (in 2010/11) and the World T20.”
Surrey sealed a first County Championship title for 16 years with a tense threewicket win over Worcestershire at Blackfinch New Road.
Openers Rory Burns, pictured, and Mark Stoneman laid the foundations with a century stand but the bottom county made the visitors fight all the way before victory was clinched 20 minutes before tea.
Seven home-grown products were part of the side which clinched a ninth successive Championship victory for the visitors, while another
– Sam Curran – was voted England’s man of the series in the Test triumph over India.
The last time Surrey put together such a sequence of victories in first class cricket was in 1999, when on the way to the first of three titles in four years under Adam Hollioake.
The Championship pennant has eluded Surrey since 2002 when one of the current side – Rikki Clarke – was part of the squad.
But the depth of locally produced talent – plus key overseas signings like Morne Morkel – suggest they could now go on and enjoy a similar run of success as achieved under Hollioake.
Alec Stewart took over as Surrey’s director of cricket in 2013 and has overseen an impressive transformation.
“Things were struggling. I can’t hide behind that,” Stewart admitted. “But things don’t happen overnight and that’s where the chief executive (Richard Gould) and chairman (Richard Thompson) were very good.
“I said ‘if I’m going to come back, let me try and do it my way and if it doesn’t work kick me out – but if it does work then you can pat me on the back, even though it will be the players who have done it’.
“I said ‘give us a couple of years to get things to where they potentially could be to then move forward’ and that’s what has happened.
“You’ve got to have a Surrey nucleus to the squad. It’s almost a unique club in that you’ve got to understand the club to work there I think.
“I’m biased because I know it inside out from a young age but it is a different club to other clubs, I feel and if you understand it, you’ve got more chance of knowing how it should work potentially.
“But then it’s about appointing good people. Graham Thorpe, excellent person, Michael Di Venuto has been outstanding and then people like Vikram Solanki making the transition from player into coach.”
Stewart was also full of praise for the players, adding: “They have grown together. It’s nice to have players picked for England and Rory Burns will be the next one, I’m 100 per cent certain of that.
Burnshashadamemorable first year as club captain with four hundreds and six halfcenturies and looks good for a place in England’s squad for the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
“I can safely say I’ve got every single ounce of talent out of my body over the years”