Paul Collingwood

[greg]

So the England captain was at a lap dancing club late at night,i guess some people would be more offended by this than what Freddie did in the World Cup but all i can think is 'When will they learn?'

Part of me thinks if it had been Flintoff who had done this he would have been hung drawn and quartered for it.

Not a good incident to have happen in the middle of a competition,especially when that player is struggling with the bat.

[flanflinger]

Greg

100% agree. Flintoff had the book thrown at him in the West Indies.. Collingwood should have been fined, banned and lost his job in the same way. He is the England captain and as such has a responsibility to set.

When I was in Cape Town for England's tour to SA, I was in a bar with most of the England team the night before an ODI game watching Rugby. When the game finished Ian Bell, Steve Harmison and Geriant Jones (all playing) headed for the door leaving Jimmy Anderson and Alex Wharf (not selected) in the bar along with some of the management. I have no problems with players having a life on tour, but if you are playing the next day, then you should not be out all night.

Collingwood made a big error, and it was not eve a naive one by a young player, he should know better by now, he has played over 100 ODI's and been on enough tour to understand that.

[Moss]

I agree with both of you. If it was Freddie, he'd be deep in the quagmire.
What Collingwood's done is worse, as he is actually captain, and going to a lap dancing club is seedy, particularly when you're married.

Fool.

[Speedboy Salesman]

Collingwood should be fined, have the captaincy taken away from him, and made to repair the other players boots! I say someone else should be made captain and have Collingwood sent back to Durham to think about what he's done. What a sad day for English cricket.

[Moss]

Collingwood has been fined £1000 apparently.

I agree that he should be stripped of the captaincy too.

[engssmoothcriminal]

Good to see people are not overeacting over such a trivial matter and making ludicrous comparisons to the whole Fredalo incident in the carribean . Collingwood made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the the wrong time (or more accurately set up by those lovely individuals at the Sun ) he did not after a series of similar drinking binges throughout the Ashes nearly drown after getting absolutely plastered during the showpiece event in world cricket. Collingwood has been the model proffesional throughout his cricketing career and being a bit of a prat (and a sober one at that) for a few hours during a meaningless tournament does not remotely damage that hard earned reputation in my eyes one bit.

[flanflinger]

The problem is that a precedent was set at the ODI world cup... how will Flintoff now feel he has been treated when his Captain ends up on the front pages for a night out in the wrong place..and just gets a fine (Flintoff was fined, dropped and sacked) keep in mind that Freddie was out 36 hours before the next match, Collingwood was playing the next day!!

There is no way a "model professional" should be in a strip club the night before a big match, what does that say to the young players in the team - Broad and Wright (both on their first tours)?

[darksideofthemoon]

Flintoff had a more severe punishment because he had quite a few warnings in Australia.

[engssmoothcriminal]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

The problem is that a precedent was set at the ODI world cup... how will Flintoff now feel he has been treated when his Captain ends up on the front pages for a night out in the wrong place..and just gets a fine (Flintoff was fined, dropped and sacked) keep in mind that Freddie was out 36 hours before the next match, Collingwood was playing the next day!!

There is no way a "model professional" should be in a strip club the night before a big match, what does that say to the young players in the team - Broad and Wright (both on their first tours)?

Flintoff had recieved several warnings over his conduct from the England management prior to his far more serious pedalo incident (which involved several members of the squad) whereas Collingwood had an unblemished disciplinary record prior to his (solitary) late night drink (singular) in a lap dance club hence the different levels of punishment. If Flintoff can't grasp the difference between years of questionable off field conduct versus a one off mistake then tough.

If Collingwood doesn't learn from this and there is a repeat in the future then as you correctly point out a precedent has been set for persistant unnacceptable off the field behavour and he will quite rightly be stripped of the captaincy. Until then he (like people in all walks of life) gets a second chance to get his head down and rectify his mistake by performing his job to the best of his abilty.