Mixing captaincy, like mixing drinks, risks a thumping hangover if not approached with care, but when Paul Collingwood handed the England job back to Michael Vaughan yesterday, with his own mission accomplished, by reasserting that he had no Test captaincy ambitions he looked every inch a man content in his own world.
Collingwood has led England to their first win in a major one-day series in Asia for 20 years, to follow up the satisfaction of a home series win against India and his stock is high.Even England's feeble 107-run defeat in the final ODI at the Premadasa Stadium on Saturday, when Dilhara Fernando took a career-best six for 27, will be excused as dead-rubber syndrome.
If Collingwood is harbouring a desire to captain England at Test level then his sense of loyalty is comfortably keeping it in check. He will rock up to England's training camp at Loughborough on December 5 to prepare for a three-Test series in Sri Lanka determined that, if he has his way, the Test dynamic will remain unchanged. His own authority is bound to have grown. But Collingwood is a cricketer who can exist among the other ranks.
"We are both trying to make England teams better - I'm not trying to take Michael's job," he said. "Michael has been successful as a player out here so I'm not sure I am going to be able to give him that much advice. The one-day side has won here, hopefully the Test side can follow."
England, intelligently, have wound up as many loose ends as possible ahead of Friday's selection announcement. Andrew Flintoff will take no part in the winter Test tours to Sri Lanka or New Zealand after a fourth ankle operation to remove bone fragments pressing on a tendon, with Collingwood remarking that he was "relieved" for him, and Ottis Gibson's achievement in building a collective spirit among England's bowlers in Sri Lanka has been rewarded with a full-time appointment as bowling coach.
As for Collingwood, he does not even get the sop of the Test vice-captaincy, England still sticking to the policy, when it comes to vice-captains, of "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Collingwood does not seem remotely perturbed.
"It will be nice to focus on my own game," he said. "I'm not too sure if I will be vice-captain. If Michael goes down injured we will have to wait and see. I still make mistakes but I am building up a CV of captaining in different conditions. We have nobody in the side making it difficult. That is all you ask for as a captain."
One-day cricket can be a formulaic business, even for the most imaginative captains. Collingwood's strengths have been in the zest and honesty he has brought to the side, rather than in pulling off a miraculous tactical gambit. His concession of the captaincy is a natural one.
England's selection issues for the Test series are not particularly complex. Flintoff's absence from Sri Lanka and New Zealand either side of the New Year clears the way for Stuart Broad to be named in the squad.
Flintoff's anguished attempts to prove his fitness during World Twenty20 soon looked forlorn and were bound to bring disquiet among those closest to him.
"I am relieved for Fred," said Collingwood. "Hopefully this will be the final operation. He has done so much us."
Of the 12 who played in the one-day series, Ravi Bopara and probably Phil Mustard will be omitted from the Test series, as will Luke Wright and Dimitri Mascarenhas. A much-floated return for Mark Ramprakash, along with the retention of Owais Shah, might lead to the exclusion of Andrew Strauss, whose subcontinent record is unimpressive. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar are assured of the spin roles, and Matt Prior will return as wicketkeeper. That leaves the main battle to be fought out by the pace bowlers, where Steve Harmison, Chris Tremlett and Matthew Hoggard will contest two remaining places at most.
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