Moores in good heart

With news about Andrew Flintoff's left ankle on the positive side of cautious and a first one-day international series win for him and a first for England on home soil since 2004 under the belt, there are high hopes for the World Twenty20.

"It would be crazy to go into any tournament not believing you can win," said Moores. "We have a lot of players who have played a lot of Twenty20 cricket and been successful domestically but we have had a different build-up to everyone else, so hopefully these seven pressurised games between evenly-matched sides will hold the squad's competitive edge."

England are up one place to seventh in the International Cricket Council rankings thanks to seeing off India so comprehensively in Saturday's decider at Lord's.

Several reputations have been enhanced as a by-product with man-of-the-series Ian Bell and leading wicket-taker James Anderson absolute shoo-ins to be awarded central contracts - they are scheduled to be announced later today along with the one-day squad for the tour of Sri Lanka.

Paul Collingwood, like his team, got better as the summer went on and has a 50% win ratio from 10 one-day matches and two Twenty20 contests since inheriting the limited-overs leadership from Michael Vaughan.

"He should look back on it and be very proud how he has developed as a captain," said Moores. "The last three or four games we have played have been very tight and he has batted and bowled very well, which shows he can deliver his own skill and still be captain.

"Tactically he has shown he is very able, the way he has mixed bowlers, been inventive at times and stayed calm under pressure.

"He is learning very quickly about the options he has got and improving all the time."