Collingwood lays down to gauntlet to world beaters

The Durham all-rounder and the rest of his team-mates touched down in London yesterday to a raucous reception from those who had gathered to meet the newly-crowned Twenty20 world champions.

Perched proudly on top of the 33-year-old's luggage as he passed through Gatwick Airport was the first ICC world trophy England had won in their history, which came thanks to a seven-wicket drubbing of Australia in Sunday's final in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Enterprising performances from Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, and man of the tournament Kevin Pietersen, enabled England to put previous poor performances in limited overs cricket behind them.

England face Bangladesh, Pakistan and Australia in a packed 12-month schedule before taking part in the next international tournament on the ICC schedule – the 50-over World Cup on the subcontinent in February.

Collingwood maintains that England can challenge for more silverware if they can transfer their swashbuckling style of cricket to the 50-over game.

"The one thing we want to do is become better and better and if you stop and be happy with what you achieved then you don't move anywhere," said Collingwood. "I think if you look at the great sides of the last 20 years, like Australia for example, they have gone and experienced these World Cup wins time and time again and that's where we have to get to as a cricket team.

"The players are desperate to continue this kind of form and this brand of cricket and, hopefully, that will take us on to win a lot of silverware in the future.

"We have a World Cup coming up now on the subcontinent and so I'm pretty certain that (one-day and Test captain) Andrew Strauss and (team director) Andy Flower will want us to continue with that same brand of cricket.

"It's only another 30 overs on top of what we have been playing in the last few weeks so I'm sure that if we can go out with the same mentality we will go out and scare a lot of sides with the way we play."

Strauss will return from a four-month absence from international cricket to lead England in the two-Test series against Bangladesh, which starts at Lord's on May 27.

Strauss's position in the 50-over form of the game has been questioned following the emergence of Kieswetter and Michael Lumb at the top of the order.

Collingwood has been touted as one-day captain if Strauss is overlooked by the selectors, but the Durham man is convinced that the Middlesex opener will return.