England lose face...

Sidebottom shoulder charged the NZ batter while going for a run. Another fielder picks up the ball and throws down the wicket. Sidebottom is the first to appeal for the run out which the umpire has no choice but to give. The England captain should have intervened and recalled the batsman. But karma is a bitch and NZ went on to win by one wicket with the last ball of the match. I suppose its all down to the extra £1500.00 that the English players would have earned if they had won. Rightly so the Kiwis refused to shake hands...and to think of it that in November England play the Windies in a one off 20/20 match for five hundred grand a man. Makes you think what's going to happen then.

Don't be so harsh, the captain came out after the game and apologised and the Kiwis accepted his apology. But I must say that the Kiwis sort of forced his hand by not coming out to shake hands.

Hindsight is always 20/20...

I watched the incident but only saw Collingwood's interview now. I'm glad NZ won and Colly apologised. It was his call, Sidebottom was embarrased by it, when the bails came off Sidebotom was checking how the injured batsmen was.

A judgement error by the normally excellent Sunderland supporting Paul Collingwood

Not sure an apology solves the problem.
What happened is a sad reflection of where human values go when money talks.

Commentator said emails had been coming in that NZ once "ran" Murali out under circumstances not in the spirit of the game.

We had a thread on here recently about "walking" or lack of it.

Sad days for the great game of cricket but at least Colly has apologised.

correct Chris, Murali walked down wicket to congratulate batting partners 100 but ball was apparently not dead and Macullum whipped off the bails and appealed and Murali given out.

Kudos to Colly for coming out, in front of entire country, and apologizing immediately after game. He had seconds, maybe a few minutes at most to make decision on pitch, got it wrong and held his hands up afterwards and recovered situation as well as he could IMHO.

Makes no difference who the cheaters are, human values are deteriorating on the sports field (and elsewhere) as money takes over.

Collingwood suspended for 4 matches, not for being a cheat, but for his team's slow over rate.
The charming K.Pietersen to captain England on Sat. for the final ODI against New Zealand.

Must be deperate to employ a foreigner as captain although having said that half the team are foreign. Would be interesting if he retains the captaincy for the one day series against Smith and his team..no love lost between Pietersen and Smith. He is now the 4th South African to lead England...Tony Greig, Alan Lamb, Andrew Strauss and now the bigggest nob head in cricket.