Collingwood concern over Twenty20 prep

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The Durham batsman, who is expected to retain his role as captain in the format at least until next April's World Twenty20, is concerned that England may struggle to forge a competitive team for that tournament.

"We've only got four or five games before the next Twenty20 World Cup so we need and want to play as much cricket as we possibly can in the format," said Collingwood. "But obviously if the conditions aren't fit they aren't fit."

He added: "Yes, it is about entertainment, but you've got to have a surface in the right condition to play an international game.

"Three metres away from the stumps, water had got on that area and it was pretty soggy. The umpires decided it was unfit for international cricket.

"It's an international Twenty20 game. In the end this is international cricket and we have to do the right things in terms of what the players need."

Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes reacted angrily to the officials' decision to send the 19,500 capacity crowd home at 8pm without a ball being bowled, suggesting that domestic cricket would have been played in similar conditions.

There will now be an ECB probe into the circumstances surrounding the abandonment.

But Collingwood, who described the umpires' judgement as "brave" in the aftermath, insisted the risk of injury meant the game could not be played.

"In the end you want everyone to come in at 100% and if the ground is not fit the ground is not fit," he said. "You have to make that decision. There were international cricketers out there who would be at risk of injury playing on that surface and the umpires didn't feel that was a risk worth taking."