Collingwood's faux pas

Paul Collingwood is someone you'd call a no-nonsense cricketer. Grinding out runs, nudging the gaps, running the singles hard, fielding energetically and bowling honest spells. Which is why it was startling when he had the media in a shock today. "Hopefully the ball won’t swing as much in the one-dayers," he said. "During the Tests what they did do well was swing the ball both ways. The white ball swings generally in one direction. Hopefully it doesn’t swing both ways.”

Both Angus Fraser and Derek Pringle, former England medium-pacers, were slightly bemused. So what was Colly talking about? Maybe he meant the white ball doesn't reverse-swing. Maybe he was talking about the left-armer's indipper to the right-handed batsmen. Maybe Allan Donald had revealed a dark art.

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Just as Rahul Dravid revealed that Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will be opening the batting, the walls of the Gordon Greenidge suite, where the press conference was held, trembled in appreciation. Hampshire is a county that's seen one of the greatest opening acts in history - Greenidge and Barry Richards - and watching two modern masters take first strike will no doubt bring back fond memories. England, meanwhile, are planning a makeshift combination. The walls, no doubt, quivered with disgust.