Collingwood asks for continued ruthlessness by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:	PD Collingwood
Event:	Australia in British Isles 2009

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DateLine: 27th August 2009

 

Stand-in English captain Paul Collingwood said he sees Ashes success as the start of something bigger for England.

 

Two Twenty20 internationals in Manchester, under Collingwood, precede a seven-match NatWest Series campaign and a favourable result would enhance England's current limited-overs ranking of fourth.

 

"We will drill into the players that we want to go bigger and better, and that really does start from tomorrow," said Collingwood, before the Stormont encounter.

 

"The responsibility is not just on my shoulders for that - all the players who have been involved in the Ashes and all the players from the outside have got a responsibility to keep the ball rolling.

 

"When we have toured Australia in the past, if they are on top of you they stay on top of you and make it very hard for you to come back.

 

"We are now in a position where we have won the Ashes series, and it would be great if we could stay on top of Australia.

 

"We have got to put the hard yards in again - it is a quick turnaround. But it starts from now, and we hope we can keep the ruthlessness we have had throughout the Test series.

 

"We have ambitions but we are not going to get carried away with ourselves.

 

"We know what we can achieve. But we have to take it step by step and we can get up those rankings.

 

"We have played some good cricket over the past seven weeks or so. But we have played some average cricket at times - and we have to get that consistency right."