Paul Collingwood Ends Suspense By Calling Time on his Test Career for England

The England cricketer has finally decided to end all speculation, partly generated by his own voicing of thoughts out loud, and decided to bow out with England's head held high.

paul collingwood walks back final time

Paul Collingwood has fought back critics previously. However, in the first indication that not only the talk but also, the the silence of his bat was beginning to ask serious questions of Collingwood the Test cricketer but was unable to find answers was revealed the England Twenty20 captain himself when he hinted that a retirement could be around the corner.

Now Collingwood is coinciding his Test career retirement with the possibility that England could win the Ashes 2010 outright on the morning of the final day of the fifth Test of the Sydney Cricket Ground. With a poor series by standards, Collingwood admitted fighting to keep his place in the team was not only going to take a great deal of hard work but also, motivation.

Collingwood in Test cricket was the typical cricketer whose job was not about flamboyance but about effective, not about being the hero but the saviour and not about being the leading run scorer but the backbone that held the game together and Collingwood has performed that role over the years with aplomb.

In many ways, Collingwood feels he can look back on an accomplished Test career because he has admitted to being able smile endlessly about England returning the favour to Australia rather than worry about his lack of form with the bat. He then felt that sixty-eight Tests were enough to cap a successful Test career and at thirty-four years of age, feels it is in England's best interests to make way for a new, young England cricketer in the Test team while continuing to play in the one day and Twenty20 format.