By Ken Borland
JOHANNESBURG Feb 13 (Reuters) – Too much time off over
Christmas was probably to blame for England’s cricketing failure
against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, former captain
Paul Collingwood said on Monday.
“The defeats came out of the blue in many ways and in trying
to see, from the outside, what they have done differently, the
only thing I can think of is that it was probably the team’s
longest ever break heading into the series,” Collingwood told
Reuters.
“Normally we’d only get three or four weeks off at the end
of our summer and we didn’t spend many Christmases at home.
“But this time there was a three-month break which meant
they went into the series a bit cold. Especially in the first
test, which did the damage because they didn’t play spin very
well, which meant their confidence levels were down and they
never recovered.”
England were beaten 3-0 by Pakistan in the test series that
ended last week and play the first of four one-day
internationals on Monday in Abu Dhabi.
Collingwood, who is in South Africa to play in a domestic
T20 competition starting on Wednesday, said he was sure England
would put up a better showing in the limited-overs games.
“The good thing about this England team is that there’s a
really good culture in the dressing-room engendered by Andy
Flower and Andrew Strauss. They obviously won’t be happy with
the performance, but there won’t be any panic stations.
“They’re still a very good cricket team, they just didn’t
adapt quickly enough to the conditions. I expect them to turn
things around in the one-dayers.”
Continued…
