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01-Jun-2009 14:38:00 GMT
ICC Twenty20 World Cup, 2009

Collingwood Confident Pietersen Will Play a Role in T20 WC

London: England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood believes his team has the skills to do well in the World Twenty20 that gets underway from June 5, and adds that he is confident about batsman Kevin Pietersen delivering the goods.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of England's fitness drills at Lords over the weekend, The Telegraph quoted Collingwood as saying: "Kevin is important to our overall cricket, he is important in the dressing room and he is raring to go."

"He is going to play a major role in this tournament. He is pretty much 100 per cent fit. He has had a little break, worked on his fitness and he has got it right and he's going to play a 100 per cent part in all the games. He wants to get in the middle," Collingwood added.

England will play two warm-up games this week, the first at Trent Bridge against Scotland. There first match of the tournament is against the West Indies, and Collingwood is confident that after the Test and One-day series victories, England will be the more dominant party.

"There are a lot of players in the squad who played against West Indies and the boys are feeling very confident at the moment and we'll certainly take that into the games," Collingwood said.

England have never won a One-day World Cup and have not threatened to do so since 1992, when they lost the final to "Imran's Tigers". Their Twenty20 record is also thin - they have won six out of 15 or 16 if you include the Stanford match - and many of the team have little experience of the game's shortest format.


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