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LONDON - As if being booed by his own fans and slammed in the newspapers wasn't enough, England cricket captain Paul Collingwood was today hit with a four-match suspension.
Collingwood was banned for his team's slow over rates during New Zealand's controversial one-wicket victory at The Oval, thereby ruling him out of Saturday's fifth one-day international at Lord's and handing Kevin Pietersen the England captaincy for the first time.
With a besieged England missing their top allrounder and skipper, it will only increase New Zealand's confidence they can close out the series 3-1 at Lord's.
It provided an intriguing twist to the Grant Elliott run-out furore which dominated post-match discussion.
International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Javagal Srinath handed down the ban, which also takes in a match against Scotland and two against South Africa, after yesterday's hearing at The Oval.
After a charge laid by umpires Mark Benson and Steve Davis, England were ruled to be three overs short of the required rate, a level two offence.
It was upgraded to a level three offence because of a similar over-rate transgression by Collingwood against India last August.
Collingwood decided not to exercise his right to appeal, while his teammates were also fined 15 per cent of their match fees.
Obviously I'm disappointed to be missing England's next four limited-overs matches but as a team we are aware of the rules and regulations in place and it's my responsibility to bear the penalties for such a breach," he said.
Pietersen said captaining England had been "a dream of mine".
"To be asked to captain your country is the ultimate honour in sport and I feel privileged and proud to have been asked to lead the side on Saturday."
It capped a tumultuous 24 hours for Collingwood, after he enraged the New Zealanders when he didn't call back an injured Elliott who was run out after colliding with England bowler Ryan Sidebottom.
After being booed by sections of The Oval crowd, he later admitted he got it wrong in "a split-second decision". His apology was accepted by New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori.
The English tabloids showed no mercy, saying Collingwood's reputation had been sullied forever.
The Sun described it as "a disgraceful and inexplicable decision", while the Daily Mail said it was the worst incident involving an England captain since Mike Gatting's row with Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana in 1987.
Meanwhile the New Zealand players insisted they'd moved on. A group including Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Mark Gillespie and Tim Southee had an afternoon of tennis at Wimbledon and cheered on compatriot Marina Erakovic in her second round victory.
"We can beat it till it's completely dead but it's over, it's happened. There's no point even worrying about it," Gillespie said.
"We know it's all over the papers and people are talking about it. But who cares, it happened, we won, move on."
Gillespie was still coming to grips with his role in the victory, when he faced four dot balls from Luke Wright in the 50th over then he and Kyle Mills scrambled two to win off the last ball when Graeme Swann's shy at the stumps missed.
"At the end of the day it was just lucky. I was absolutely crapping myself before I went out there so it was a good feeling to pull it off."
Gillespie walked to the crease in trying circumstances with his teammates still fuming at the Elliott run-out.
"It was tough because I was trying to prepare to bat and guys weren't happy, and even as I was padding up I saw the replay for the first time and I found myself getting quite angry."
- NZPA
