Collingwood in SA tour party

By Jon Steer
August 25 2004

Paul Collingwood was today included in the forthcoming England tour to South Africa. Duncan Fletcher highlighted Colly's international experience as the reason for his inclusion and that he offers the best balance as a replacement for Andrew Flintoff

The news wasn't all good for Colly though, his ECB central contract was not renewed despite his inclusion in the squad. Colly's award of a central contract last year raised a few eyebrows as he was still to break into the test team even though he was a regualr in the one day matches. Now without a contract he is still on the fringes of the test team and seems an automatic choice for the one dayers when fit. Whether this will mean that we see more of him playing for Durham next season remains to be seen and much may depend on what happens in South Africa this winter. Colly will be hoping for an opportunity to play in the test series as well as the one day series but that only seems likely if Flintoff is injured...

As expected Steve Harmison has had his six month ECB contract converted into a full twelve month contract. Liam Plunkett was also recognised and included as a pert time student at the national academy.

The full tour party is:
Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Mark Butcher, Michael Vaughan (capt), Graham Thorpe, Robert Key, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones (wk), Chris Read (wk), Ashley Giles, Gareth Batty, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Stephen Harmison, James Anderson.