England's Paul Collingwood relieved to be playing again following Pakistan scandals

That may well prove to be a vain hope given the weight of allegations and the lingering prospect that another Pakistan player could be on the verge of being named as part of the betting investigation underway. But for Paul Collingwood, the England Twenty20 captain, the fact the two teams now play six matches over the course of little more than two weeks will allow the chance to provide a different form of headline.

“We just wanted to get out there and play,” he said. “The players have been great the past couple of days. We have focussed solely on cricketing matters and today they got their teeth into it. We just want to get on with the cricket now. There have been lots of allegations and speculation because the cricket has not been on but once we start playing again people start talking about good bowling, good catches. That kind of thing. Hopefully that will do all the talking now.


“We all know we will get to the bottom of this. We will do everything we can as players or management to eradicate this form the game. It is as simple as that, but whatever was in the papers this morning did not change our preparation – it was just to focus on the cricket.”

This was England’s first match in this format since winning the World Twenty20 in Barbados in May. The spot-fixing scandal hardly made it an occasion to celebrate returning heroes but England’s victory was the polished performance of champions.

“I’m delighted,” said Collingwood. “The strategy seems to be working in terms of the Twenty20 form of the game. The bowlers were fantastic. We had a hiccup with the bat but Morgan and Yardy saw us through.” There was no Kevin Pietersen yesterday, the player of the World Twenty20, who is still waiting to discover if he faces disciplinary action for a message on Twitter after he had been left out of the one-day squad. One player who will almost certainly be in trouble is Dimitri Mascarenhas, the Hampshire captain, after comments appeared on his Twitter page criticising Geoff Miller, the chairman of selectors.

The message read: “Geoff miller is a complete ----. He had no clue what he is doing. ---- -----,. Chairman of selectors came to Liverpool and didn’t even come and say hi... what a -----. Doesn’t take much to say hello, does it.”

Last month Azeem Rafiq, the Yorkshire spinner, was suspended for a month and fined £500 by the ECB for an obscene message on Twitter.