Paul Collingwood talks like an Australian

For years English cricket fans have had to take a gutful of cocky comments from a series of Australian cricketers. Whether it was Glenn McGrath's habitual 5-0 predictions, Shane Warne's supposed new deliveries or Steve Waugh questioning the ticker of certain England players, our boys have certainly taken a lot of stick from what was admittedly a generation of truly great Australian cricketers.

Now though, the shoe is on the other foot. England hold the Ashes, beat the Australians in the World T20 final and lead 2-0 in the current five match Nat West Series. Any semblance of aura has gone from this Australian side and under the leadership of Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower, England are now confident every time they come up against Ricky Ponting's men.

And they are not afraid of saying so. Having endured in particular McGrath's taunts, it was wonderful to hear Paul Collingwood utter the following ahead of the third match at Old Trafford today.

"We're confident every time we go out and play Australia. It's not arrogance. We are now confident we can beat anyone in one-day cricket on any given day. If you look at Australia's record over the last year or so they still have that air of invincibility, because they haven't lost many games. But we are the better side at the moment."

And what makes it even better, is that unlike some of McGrath's statements, everything Collingwood says is true.

Comments

[Cricket Burble]

It's interesting how Collingwood's comments have been taken. In the Aussie press he's been described as "taunting" the Aussies but as far as I'm concerned he's shown nothing but respect for them. As you say, the polar opposite of McGrath predicting 5-0 wins and many of Warne's comments that really were "taunting".

[The Reverse Sweep]

The Aussie press (and Warne) don't seem to like Colly, which is funny given he is the most Australian of the England team in terms of competitiveness, grittiness and on-field chat. It's shaping up to be some Ashes battle!