Over and out: Go-slow England skipper Collingwood banned for four matches

Collingwood, 32, will miss Saturday's NatWest Series finale against the Black Caps at Lord's, a one-day international against Scotland and two further matches against South Africa, the first a Twenty20 international and the second an ODI, later this summer.

See no evil: Paul Collingwood has been banned for four matches

He was found guilty of a level three offence in the International Cricket Council's code of conduct by match referee Javagal Srinath last night.

Flanked by coach Peter Moores and operations manager Phil Neale at an after-match hearing, Collingwood faced a minimum ban of four limited-overs matches or two Test matches - or a combination of both. The severity was such because this is Collingwood's second such offence within a 12-month period.

He was fined 50 per cent of his match fee following the match against India in Bristol last August.
As on that occasion, England were three overs down when their time allotment for bowling their 50 overs elapsed.

Former India pace bowler Srinath delivered his verdict at 1.35pm this afternoon.

In addition to Collingwood's spell on the sidelines, England's other 10 players will be fined 15 per cent of their match fee.

Collingwood, who felt it necessary to publicly apologise for his decision not to reprieve a floored Grant Elliott after his run-out last night, has the right of appeal in writing within 24 hours.

But he does not intend to do so, which means England need to appoint a stand-in captain for the fifth one-dayer against the Black Caps.

Kevin Pietersen is technically next in line, having taken charge of the team when Collingwood has left the field during this current series.

But two men currently not in the XI - Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, who is not even in the squad - may also be considered.