Shake up the world order

The future starts today as England attempt to draw a line under 15

years of limited-overs underachievement by picking a one-day squad to

face the West Indies with one eye on the 2011 World Cup.

Michael Vaughan's correct

decision to stand down from the

one-day captaincy will enable

England to select a young party for

the two Twenty20 games and three

one-day internationals.

They could all conceivably be

around in four years, even though

chairman of selectors David

Graveney has said that shorter-term picks should not be

discounted.

Scroll down to read more:

That pronouncement came very

much with Vaughan in mind but

now the Test captain has done the

decent thing by consigning his

derided 'back to basics' World Cup

policy to history, England can take a

step forward in a form of the game

that, subconsciously, they have

never taken as seriously as Test

cricket. Their lack of success in four

World Cups since being beaten in

the 1992 Final is lamentable.

Only in Paul Collingwood, all but

confirmed as the new one-day captain,

plus likely recalls for Vikram

Solanki, 31, and Matthew Hoggard,

30, will England lean towards players

over 30. There will almost

certainly be a first call-up for Essex

batsman Mark Pettini, 23, and a

limited-overs return for his county

colleague Alastair Cook.

Crucially, there will also be a

change of policy away from picking

players and then adapting tactics to

their strengths. Instead, England

will follow the rest of the world in

selecting attacking batsmen who

can take advantage of power

plays and those who can thrive

in Twenty20 as well as 50-over

cricket.

Such has been the overwhelming

success of the English innovation

that England are keen on making

an impact in the first Twenty20

World Cup in South Africa in

September, even though there will

be no call-up for 'specialists' like

Warwickshire captain Darren

Maddy.

There will be a thank-you to

wicketkeeper Paul Nixon, 36, for his

World Cup efforts but an acknowledgement

that Matt Prior has

earned the opportunity to take over

in the limited-overs game.

Andrew Flintoff is ruled out by

injury; it is too early for Marcus

Trescothick's comeback and

Andrew Strauss will be rested. In

any case, he does not justify

selection in one-day cricket.

Collingwood became the obvious

choice as captain once Kevin Pietersen dropped out of the

running. KP confirmed yesterday

that he had told the selectors he

prefers to concentrate on his

batting for now. But Collingwood

remains a conservative choice and

a stab in the dark because his captaincy

experience has been limited

to three first-class games, four onedayers

and a spell in charge of

Shotley Bridge Under-18s.

The Durham all-rounder is a man

who will work closely with Vaughan

and will not be perceived as a threat

to the Test captain, enhancing the

chances of the split-captaincy

system becoming a success.

Yet, it would have been far more

imaginative if England had

persuaded Pietersen that the time

is right for him to take over as

one-day captain — extending his

influence over the team beyond

world-class batting in both forms of

the game.

The showbiz lifestyle and skunk

haircut have been consigned to the

past and Pietersen, approaching his

27th birthday, has a shrewd cricket

brain and maturity that is rarely

found in England-raised players of

the same age.

He will also be around his peak at

the time of the next World Cup

while Collingwood, now 31, will be

approaching the end of his career

by 2011.

Yes, Pietersen may prefer to

remain in the ranks for now but

Collingwood was making the same

noises — publicly and to the selectors

— at the start of this season, a

development which is now put

down to respect for Vaughan while

he was still in the job.

It could well be that Pietersen is

of the same mould as people like

Shane Warne and Nasser Hussain —

characters who were said to be too

self-absorbed and 'risky' for leadership

but became two of the best

and most natural captains the modern

game has seen.

While England may be missing a

trick with the captaincy, they will be

naming a talented squad to face a

West Indies side who will surely put

up a better fist of competing in

limited-overs cricket under the

leadership of Chris Gayle, who was

born to play the short forms.

It would be a major surprise if

England do not win at least three of

the five games which begin with the

Twenty20 double header at the Brit

Oval next Thursday and Friday.

POSSIBLE SQUAD

Collingwood (capt; Durham),

Cook, Pettini (Essex), Pietersen

(Hampshire), Prior (wkt; Sussex),

Bell (Warwickshire), Solanki

(Worcestershire), Shah or Joyce

(Middlesex), Yardy (Sussex), Broad

(Notts), Anderson (Lancashire),

Panesar (Northants), Sidebottom

(Notts), Hoggard (Yorkshire).

(Ravi Bopara, Essex, will be named

15th man subject to injury concerns).