England will dominate world cricket for next 15 years: Collingwood

SYDNEY - England batsman Paul Collingwood has given his team’s plans to dominate world cricket for the next 15 years in the manner the Australian side did.

Collingwood well remembers the Australian side, having Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and company, and believes his English teammates can reach the same lofty heights.

“The team that we played against four years ago, they built up an aura over a good 10- to 15-year period. They dominated cricket for a very long time,” said Collingwood.

“I think every team gave them a lot of respect because of that, and even before you went out on to the pitch they had this aura about them. And obviously they had the confidence, and they had the arrogance when you got out there, and too right they should have.

“And that’s something we’re trying to build over the next 10 years as well, to create an aura about ourselves. We believe we can get better and better all the time,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Collingwood, as saying.

England’s recent success against Australia is the cause of all this optimism, having beaten them in all three forms of the game in the past 18 months.

“I think what’s different is that we’ve had 18 months of solid cricket, the belief and confidence we’ve built over that period of time is genuine belief,” Collingwood said.

“Another thing that has happened is that we’ve beaten Australia quite a few times in this past year, whether it be in the Ashes last year, in pressurised situations, the one-day series after being hammered by them [6-1] the year before, and the Twenty20 World Cup final.

“I think you can take a lot of belief out of beating Australia in pressurised situations and those kind of victories,” Collingwood added. (ANI)