Collingwood to play for Daredevils, foregoes break

Paul Collingwood will play for the Delhi Daredevils, despite media claims of him being tired and getting a release from the franchise. Collingwood has been involved in a very tiring season for his country in all the three formats, which has seen the English side play West Indies, then the IPL, the Ashes, the ICC World T20 and now the ODIs against Australia. >

In fact, such has been the issue with fatigue, that even captain Andrew Strauss has agreed and said that he looked out of sorts and “I agree he was looking a bit exhausted which is why he has been pulled out (from the ODIs against Australia)”

However, the Delhi Daredevils have not relented. It is clearly a part of his contract with them that as an IPL player, he had to represent the side for the Champions League, and that is exactly what they want him to do.

The chief operating officer of the Delhi Daredevils, Amrit Mathur has said that the franchise had got in touch with Collingwood and the response that they had got was that the all-rounder wanted to play in tournament. Mathur acknowledged that he had read the media reports, but did not find anything substantial in them.

The ECB has also washed its hands off the incident, stating clearly that the contract was between Collingwood and the franchise and they had no say in the matter.