ICC World T20
England 'to build' on success
2010-05-19 08:59
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London - Paul Collingwood has told England's stars to make sure they use their ICC World Twenty20 triumph as a springboard to dominate world cricket.
England captain Collingwood and his team-mates returned to London on Tuesday still basking in the warm afterglow of beating Australia in Sunday's Twenty20 final in Barbados.
It was the first ICC world trophy England had ever won and Collingwood is determined to ensure the likes of Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, and man of the tournament Kevin Pietersen build on that success in a busy 12 months ahead.
England now face Bangladesh and Pakistan, then travel to Australia to defend the Ashes before taking part in the next international tournament on the ICC schedule - the 50-over World Cup in February.
"The one thing we want to do is become better and better and if you stop and be happy with what you achieved then you don't move anywhere," Collingwood said.
"I think if you look at the great sides of the last 20 years, like Australia for example, they have gone and experienced these World Cup wins time and time again and that's where we have to get to as a cricket team.
"The players are desperate to continue this kind of form and this brand of cricket and hopefully that will take us on to win a lot of silverware in the future."
Collingwood will cede the England captaincy back to Andrew Strauss for next week's first Test against Bangladesh and he is confident the switch will go smoothly.
Strauss will return from a four-month absence from international cricket to lead England in the two-Test series against Bangladesh.
His position in the 50-over form of the game has been questioned by some following the emergence of South African-born duo Kieswetter and Michael Lumb at the top of the order.
But Durham batsman Collingwood said: "There's no pressure on him coming back in.
"He's a fantastic leader a lot of this kind of success we've had over the last few weeks can go down to a lot of the values he and Andy Flower have installed in us over the past year.
"The brand of cricket that we played in the Twenty20 is something we have to keep trying to improve.
"It has been successful in this tournament but we have to adapt it to different conditions now.
"We have a World Cup coming up now on the subcontinent and so I'm pretty certain that (one-day and Test captain) Andrew Strauss and (team director) Andy Flower will want us to continue with that same brand of cricket.
"It's only another 30 overs on top of what we have been playing in the last few weeks so I'm sure that if we can go out with the same mentality we will go out and scare a lot of sides with the way we play."
Flower added: "Andrew will come back in and there won't be any problem whatsoever. He's a fine leader and a fine player - it should happen seamlessly."