COLLY: FROM SHOTLEY BRIDGE TO WORLD CUP WINNER!
FROM MR DURHAM MAKING HIS DEBUT AGAINST NORTHAMPTONSHIRE IN 1996 TO REPRESENTING THE CLUB FOR 23 SEASONS
It is a great sportsman who can say he has wrung every last ounce out of his career without outstaying his welcome.
Paul Collingwood can look himself in the mirror and say just that.
When the 42-year-old Durham and former England all-rounder announced he is to finally hang up his spikes after 23 seasons in the first-class game, he did so having maximised the talent with which he arrived on the scene.
A bowler who could make things happen, a batsmen who collected runs in a style of his own making, a fielder of genuine brilliance and an inspirational leader, Collingwood has prospered where perhaps more naturally gifted players have not.
As proud to wear the Durham badge on his chest as he was England’s lions, Collingwood has prevailed for as long as he has as a result of both his enduring capacity to contribute and an undimmed passion for the sport which gripped him during his formative years.
Born in Shotley Bridge in May 1976, he played cricket for his home village before striding on to the county scene a few miles down the road in Chester-le-Street.
He made his debut for Durham against Northamptonshire in 1996 and has represented the club in 23 seasons since, and it is a measure of the service he has given that the pavilion at the Emirates Riverside was renamed in his honour earlier this year.
A medium-pacer who could be effective in swinging conditions, he worked hard on his batting and established himself as a genuine all-rounder on the domestic stage, in the process earning himself an ODI debut for England against Pakistan in June 2001 and, in December 2003, a Test bow in Sri Lanka.
His batting has at times represented a triumph of tenacity over elegance, but few ordinary players score a double century in an Ashes series and the 206-run innings he compiled in Adelaide in 2006 had a beauty all of its own.
On the day he announced his impending retirement, he had amassed 304 firstclass appearances, 16,891 runs and 164 wickets and averaged 40.56 with the bat in 68 Test appearances.
In addition, he became the oldest man to score a century in Twenty20 cricket at the age of 41 years and 65 days when he blasted 106 against Worcestershire in July 2017.
However, the numbers do not come close to telling the full story.
A natural athlete with an ability to call upon hidden reserves at the precise moment they are needed, he has led from the front throughout his career, and showed future generations of Durham players there is a path from cricket’s northeast outpost to the pinnacle of the game.
His loyalty to his native county has been exemplary even in the wake of a financial crisis which prompted the departures of many of his higher-profile teammates, with coach Jon Lewis admitting the club’s debt to its most celebrated son on the eve of the new season.
Lewis said: “Without going into detail, I’m quite sure that somebody has offered him more money to play elsewhere.
“But he wants to see things go well here, he wants this club to be successful.”
Successful it has been with Collingwood captaining Durham to the Country Championship title in 2013, a third in six years, and playing a key role in their Royal London One-Day Cup victory at Lord’s a year later.
The three-time Ashes winner achieved tangible success at international level too, although it was the shortest form of the game which yielded the biggest reward as, in 2010, he led England to Twenty20 World Cup glory in the Caribbean.
The victory over Australia in the final made Collingwood the first - and to date only - man to captain England to a global cricket title.
It is fitting that Collingwood’s announcement came at the end of a week which saw England skipper Alastair Cook end his Test career with a fairytale century in his final innings and Jimmy Anderson establish himself as the game’s most potent pace bowler.
A man described as “Mr Durham” by the club’s chairman Sir Ian Botham deserves to be mentioned in the same breath - and as Botham added, it will indeed be “very strange without him.”