Collingwood was wrong – Benkenstein

Jun 27 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

DURHAM captain Dale Benkenstein has admitted he sympathises with England one-day skipper Paul Collingwood, even though he disagreed with his behaviour against New Zealand at The Oval.

Benkenstein has been a team-mate of Collingwood’s at the Riverside for the last three years and the two have spent a lot of time together both on and off the pitch.

But he refused to defend Collingwood’s actions and insisted the England skipper had been wrong to appeal after New Zealand’s Grant Elliott was run out following an accidental collision with Ryan Sidebottom in the fourth one-day international on Wednesday.

“I have a lot of sympathy for Paul because it was a really tough one for a captain,” said Benkenstein, who has also skippered Natal-Natal in South Africa.

“He was put in a hard situation, but he should not have appealed for the dismissal and I think he knows that. He did not break any rules in asking the umpire to dismiss him, but there comes a point where the spirit of the game is more important. What he did wasn’t in the spirt of the game, but he realised that and he has apologised. I thought he was superb when he was speaking to the media after the game and it’s easy to criticise when you are not out there on the pitch. But no, I would like to think I wouldn’t have done the same thing in the circumstances.”

For those angered by Collingwood’s behaviour there was a sense of poetic justice yesterday when he was banned for four one-day internationals as punishment for England’s slow over rate at the Oval.

The punishment was so severe because it was the second time in the space of 12 months that Collingwood had been found guilty of failing to get his side to bowl the required number of overs in the allotted time.

The 32-year-old will miss the final one day international against New Zealand at Lord’s on Saturday and will also miss the first three games against South Africa at the end of August. Benkenstein added: “It’s harsh on him, but at least we will get to see Colly at Durham for a couple of weeks during his ban which will be a bonus for us.”

Collingwood could now play in Durham’s Championship match against Yorkshire at the weekend, as well as the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final against Kent and the Twenty20 quarter-final the following week.

Kevin Pietersen will take Collingwood’s place as England captain for the weekend’s decider, and the big hitter – who celebrates his 28th birthday today – said he was ‘humbled’ to get the chance.

“Captaining England has been a dream of mine but I also understand that I’m assuming the role in Paul’s absence as he is the captain and leader of the one-day side,” said Pietersen.

“To be asked to captain your country is the ultimate honour in sport and I feel privileged and proud to have been asked to lead the side on Saturday.” Collingwood, who did not contest his punishment, said: “Obviously I’m disappointed, but as a team we are aware of the rules and regulations in place and it’s my responsibility to bear the penalties for such a breach. Clearly we’ll look to address the problem so it doesn’t happen again.

“The England captaincy means the world to me and already I’m looking forward to leading the one-day team against South Africa in August. I wish my team-mates all the best for Saturday’s final ODI as we aim to finish the series with a win.”

Flanked by coach Peter Moores and operations manager Phil Neale at an after-match hearing, Collingwood faced a minimum ban of four limited-overs matches or two Test matches – or a combination of both. The severity was such because this is Collingwood’s second such offence within a 12-month period.