Collignwood takes an innovative swipe on Warne’s jibes

LONDON - Australian spin legend Shane Warne may have slated Paul Collignwood for showing a lack of imagination in his captaincy, but England T20 captain took innovative swipe on Australia’s elimination from the World Twenty20.

“It’s a bit disappointing that they’ve been knocked out, to be honest,” Collingwood said today, joking that he was upset that his side had not had an early chance to beat the Australians.

“We set a bit of a marker when we beat them in the Twenty20 game in 2005,” The Guardian quoted Collignwood, as saying.

Aware he is in the thick of the Ashes phoney war, Collingwood further said: “I’m being very diplomatic, aren’t I? Obviously, with the Ashes coming up, if anything can dent their confidence, it’s worth our while but it’s more about how they respond to getting knocked out,” he added.

Warne in his newspaper column rubbished Collingwood’s qualities as a captain, and wrote that he was “not too impressed” with Collingwood’s captaincy and needed to show more flair and imagination.

“I heard about that, but I’d better get used to it. I’m going to get plenty of stick off him this summer,” said Collingwood.

“I know that for a fact. The only thing is, now I’ve got no way back because he’s in the media so I can’t sledge him back,” he said.

Asked about a little enmity between the two men, Collingwood replied: “I think it’s a fair possibility, yes. In the last Ashes we had a bit of a ding-dong in the middle, though to be honest it was just about two guys who really wanted to win, it was nothing too personal.” (ANI)