Paul Collingwood is reportedly mulling the prospect of playing of playing for Andy flower’s World XI. (Source: Reuters)
Former England captain Paul Collingwood is reportedly mulling the prospect of playing of playing for Andy flower’s World XI in Pakistan next month. As per earlier reports, Collingwood has been approached and will reportedly earn around 75,000 pounds if he decided to play.
Commenting on the issue, Collingwood said, “There’s been a lot of speculation on social media, probably because I’ve got a week off with Durham [in the Specsavers Championship] so it fits well with the dates, but I can’t give you too much. I’ve been asked if I would be willing but, until details about security [are clarified], then you don’t know, you can’t commit”.
“It’s a starting point (Flower’s approach), more than anything else,” he noted. “I’m sure Andy’s probably asked 50 cricketers from around the world, maybe even more, just to see if they’d entertain the idea,” he added.
Speaking on the aspect of security, the former England skipper said, “If you are going to be involved in something like this, you want to ask as many different people as you can. The security firms that people employ are very important – Reg Dickason with England, I’ve had a lot of trust in him – so it’ll be exactly the same as when you play for England. You ask a lot of questions and until you know the details, it’s silly to say you would be willing to do anything. But that’s the next step and we’ll go from there”.
However, Collingwood There’s not one main reason why you’d get involved but certainly, as a 41-year-old, if I could play a T20 international in front of a big crowd, that would float anybody’s boat. Of course the money would be a good thing, of course helping Pakistan would be a good thing. There’s all sorts of reasons, but the tag of a World XI for a 41-year-old, I’m quite proud of that if I was to get in that team.”
