Vaughan gives up one-day captaincy

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A day to remember for Paul Collingwood, who scored 128 against the West Indies at his home ground, and effectively became England's one-day captain-in-waiting when Michael Vaughan stood down from the job. Simon Briggs reports from the Riverside. More... Vaughan gives up one-day captaincy By Simon Briggs at the Riverside Last Updated: 1:56am BST 19/06/2007 Have your say Read comments Derek Pringle: Vaughan's one-day career running shortCollingwood home with a hundred | Video: The Analyst In pics: Day four from Durham | Chester-le-Street scoreboard This was a day to remember for Paul Collingwood. After scoring 128 against the West Indies at Chester-le-Street, his home ground, Collingwood effectively became England's one-day captain-in-waiting when Michael Vaughan stood down from the job last night. Stepping back: Michael Vaughan can concentrate on Test dutiesOfficial confirmation will not be issued until Friday, when the one-day squad is announced for a five-match series against the West Indies, but Collingwood is a strong front-runner. He is widely respected in the dressing room and has 121 one-day caps to his name - more than twice as many as his main rival, Kevin Pietersen. "If I were to be asked, it would be a pretty hard job to turn down," Collingwood said last night. Vaughan had planned to delay his one-day resignation until after this Test, but media speculation forced his hand. "Our priority is to build a one-day squad able to compete strongly at the next World Cup," he said. "I firmly believe that the interests of the team will be best served if I step down and allow another player to gain additional experience of captaincy in the one-day international arena." Though he has put the long view in his statement, Vaughan is just as concerned about his fragile right knee. After all the rehab work he has gone through, he wants to keep the Test captaincy for as long as possible - and that means sparing his body from the debilitating effects of 50-over and 20-over cricket. Surprisingly, Vaughan said he would continue to be available for one-day selection, but this is an irrelevance. The captaincy was the one thing keeping him in the side. If England are supposed to be planning for the future, there is little point in picking a 32-year-old with an unimpressive average and questionable fitness levels. The news came as a surprise to the players - even Collingwood himself - who only found out when they left the field. "It came as a little bit of a shock," Collingwood said. "Obviously we've had some disappointing one-day results, and whether he puts that a bit too much on his shoulders I don't know. But from our point of view he has been a fantastic captain to play for." Collingwood has come a long way since his disastrous introduction to one-day international cricket in the summer of 2001, when he accumulated just 20 runs and no wickets in four appearances against Australia and Pakistan. Despite this sticky start, his pugnacity and obvious work ethic impressed the coach Duncan Fletcher, and he soon became a fixture in the side. "When Paul joined us, he was a lad with attitude, in the nicest possible sense," Geoff Cook, the Durham coach, said. "He's a good communicator and he's got a very sharp cricket brain. He'd revel in the responsibility." Collingwood shared a 169-run stand with Matt Prior, which has set up an intriguing final day. With the West Indies still 30 runs behind, a third consecutive victory could yet be within England's grasp.