Former England batsman Paul Collingwood has spoken out about the possibility of taking over as full-time head coach of the England National Cricket Team.
On Sunday, Collingwood stated that his main focus is on the next four weeks with the Test team on tour in the West Indies. He added that if he were asked to take the job full-time, he would ‘never say never.’
Paul Collingwood On Taking Up England Head-Coach Job
Following the departure of Chris Silverwood following the Ashes 2021-22 series against Australia, Paul Collingwood was named interim head coach of the England National Cricket Team.
Notably, Joe Root’s England had performed poorly in the Ashes 2021-22 series, losing the marquee series by a score of 0-4.
Meanwhile, in an interview, Paul Collingwood stated that he would never rule out becoming the full-time head coach of the England team, but that his primary focus right now is on rebuilding England for the upcoming series against the West Indies.
“Look, I would never say never, but my main focus right now is these next four weeks. If we get that right, hopefully, we can get performances out on the park and we can rebuild. It is an amazing job. To be the coach and to try to help these guys get to where they need to be, feels special as well. So I would never say never, but I am just concentrating solely on these next four weeks,” said Collingwood.
Collingwood believes that, despite his lack of full-time coaching experience, he can bring a lot to the role even if he is only given it for a short time.
“I have had a little bit of experience in the past couple of years of taking over on an interim basis, and obviously I have done the T20s recently. I haven’t got the experience behind us. I haven’t done County Cricket or anything like that, but I have certainly got the passion to try to make a difference,” Collingwood said.
“I try to bring people closer together, build teams, build relationships. The word unity keeps coming around and making sure that when you get out on that park, we are all driving in one direction and that is key for these next three Test matches,” he added.
Collingwood will take part in his first Test match as interim head coach against the West Indies on March 8 in Antigua. The series, in particular, consists of three Test matches. England also recently lost a T20I series to the West Indies by a score of 3-2.
