Collingwood happy for leadership role

Paul Collingwood: 'Nobody has asked me to do it so we'll wait and see what the selection is' © Getty Images

Paul Collingwood has said he would be "more than happy" to become England's vice-captain should the need arise during the World Cup. Andrew Flintoff was stripped of the role following the late night drinking session after England's defeat in their opening match against New Zealand that saw six players and two coaches fined.

England have not yet announced a number two for Vaughan, who gave them a fresh injury scare when he tripped on a pot hole during practice on Tuesday, injuring his suspect right knee. But Collingwood, speaking ahead of England's final group match against Kenya on Saturday, where the winners will join New Zealand in the Super Eight stage, insisted all was well with his captain.

"I think first of all Michael Vaughan is 100 percent fit, which is great. But if the vice-captaincy job did come up I'd be more than happy [to do it]. At the moment it hasn't. I'm sure a decision, if Michael was to go down, would be based on whoever was playing on the day. At the moment the vice-captain hasn't been announced and nobody has asked me to do it so we'll wait and see what the selection is. I'm not sure whether they [the England management] will announce anybody."

Collingwood, who has captained Durham for a handful of games, briefly led England during some of their World Cup warm-up fixtures when Vaughan and Flintoff were off the field. "I've done it a couple of times in practice games for 20 overs or so and I enjoyed leading the team out in the park even for 20 overs. It's obviously a great honour. Ideally, I would have like to have done a couple of years [with Durham] but if it came around it would be very hard to turn down."

Both England and Kenya have beaten minnows Canada and lost to New Zealand, making their clash at the weekend a winner-takes-all contest. "They are a potential banana skin but we have to put that out of our minds," said Collingwood. "Once we start thinking that way it can cause you trouble. We are looking forward to it.

"We've done as much preparation as much possible off the pitch. We've been on the laptops, looking at bowling actions and spoken to a couple of Kiwi guys about them so come Saturday when we face the first ball we know exactly what to do."