Paul Collingwood

Paul Collingwood Biography

Paul Collingwood is a former English cricketer born on 26th May 1976 in Shotley Bridge in Durham. Collingwood was an integral part of the Test, ODI and T20 sides of England. He has also served as the captain of the English ODI team from 2007-2008.

Collingwood was one of those cricketers who could be admired for his elegance and technique. He essayed the role of an effective all-rounder for England who was a right-handed batsman and bowled medium pace.

Collingwood has scored 11,221 runs at an average of 34.52. He also has taken 272 wickets at an average of 33.47. He has also been regarded as one of the best fielders of his time.

Background

Collingwood’s illustrious career began at his local Shotley Bridge Cricket club. He was signed by his local county side Durham in 1995. He was committed to playing for his local side, Durham until he had “zero energy”.

Collingwood made an impressive debut in first-class cricket against a strong Northamptonshire side in 1996, at the Riverside Ground in Durham.

He made an immediate impression by taking the important scalp of former England all-rounder David Capel with his first ball and scoring a vital 91 in his first innings.

However, his early years as a first-class player have been characterized by relatively modest performances with the bat and ball in each season from 1996 to 2000.

Debut

Collingwood made his ODI debut against Pakistan, which possessed a strong battery of fast bowlers in Edgbaston in 2001. With consistent performances for the English ODI side, Collingwood earned his maiden test call-up against the Sri Lankan side in Galle in 2003.

Collingwood also has the distinction of being the first capped player of the English side when he played his first T20 International against Australia at the Rose Bowl in 2005.

Rise to glory

For the first few years of his international career, he seemed just to be replacement brought in to the team to fill in the gap. It was in Lahore in 2005, where he struck an important 96 and 80 before hitting his brilliant maiden century on a turning dust bowl at Nagpur.

He scored 206 runs during the 2006-07 Ashes at Adelaide, to become the first English cricketer to score a double century in Australia in the past 78 years.

Captaincy

Collingwood replaced Michael Vaughan as ODI skipper after the latter resigned from the post before the home series against West Indies in 2007.

He enjoyed a fair amount of success as skipper but his poor form post-2008 made him relinquish the role. But he returned as skipper of the T20 squad for the 2009 World Cup and led his team the historical World T20 title in 2010.

Records

Collingwood's reputation as an all-rounder in ODIs grew dramatically as he starting solidifying his position in the squad, when he surpassed Viv Richards' best all-round performance with a century and a 6 wicket haul against Bangladesh in 2005.

His other notable performances came against arch-rivals Australia during the CB series in 2006. His brilliant double-century at Adelaide ought to have been the defining moment of his career.

Retirement

With the English side on the verge of a comfortable 3-1 triumph in the Ashes in 2010-11, he chose to retire from Test cricket an all-time high.

Collingwood hoped to keep playing limited-overs cricket for the England side but a poor World Cup performance followed by the Ashes debacle, he was subsequently dropped from the English side with Stuart Broad replacing him as the captain of the T20 side.

After considering retirement from all forms of cricket, Collingwood decided to continue with Durham and succeeded Phil Mustard as the captain of his home county in 2012, winning an impressive seven of his first 10 matches at the helm of Durham.