England captain Andrew Strauss is reassured by Kevin Pietersen's denial that he plans to retire from ODI cricket.30-year-old Pietersen was moved to clarify his intention to continue playing 50-over cricket, come what may for England in the Cricket World Cup, after press reports claimed he would soon be limiting himself to the Test and Twenty20 formats.
On England's arrival in Dhaka on Sunday for two warm-up matches before the sub-Continental tournament gets under way in earnest, Strauss repeated: "Kevin has denied those rumours."
"You can understand a situation where players, at the back-end of their career, need to manage their workload and might decide one form of the game is more appropriate for them to keep playing than all of them.
"We've seen Brett Lee do it; Murali's [Muttiah Muralitharan] doing it now - so there is a lot of precedent there - but that's more playing the short form of the game."
Strauss himself played only four Twenty20 internationals before deciding for himself, at the age of 32, that he did not warrant a place in the 'sprint' line-up.
"It's an ongoing saga with international cricketers," he said."There are heavy schedules, and people need to manage their bodies in the latter part of their careers.
"It's something players individually have to think about."England's World Twenty20-winning captain Paul Collingwood, part of the squad hoping to help Strauss add the 50-over crown for good measure, retired from Test cricket last month.
The all-rounder did so on the back of a run of poor batting form.
But Strauss said: "Paul Collingwood's greatest strength is that he contributes all over the park."His bowling has been very effective, probably a lot more than people would have thought in Australia, and he is the sort of bowler who should do well out here."He is an unbelievable fielder as well.
"That's what he brings to the party, and why he's such an invaluable member of our side."I think he'll come back into form with the bat as well. He's too good a player not to - and if he does so, he could have a dramatic impact on our chances in the Cricket World Cup."
England will need Collingwood at his best, in the absence of Eoin Morgan with a finger injury - and Strauss did not seek yesterday to gloss over how badly the Irishman may be missed."We're very disappointed not to have Eoin Morgan. He's been one of the stand-out performers for us in one-day cricket recently.
"But we're going to have to make do without him. We've got some good back-up - Ravi Bopara is coming into the side, having had a lot of success in Indian conditions before at the IPL, and we are hoping he can fill Morgan's boots adequately."
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