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England captain Paul Collingwood has been fined £1000 after admitting drinking at a lap-dancing bar in Cape Town on Saturday, the night before England’s crucial Super Eight match against South Africa. He was handed the fine by a panel that included England coach Peter Moores, chairman of selectors David Graveney and ECB chief executive David Collier.

“Paul Collingwood has been levied with a suitable fine,” a terse ECB media release said. “The matter is now closed.”

“It’s obviously unacceptable,” Collingwood admitted. “I’m England captain and going to these places isn’t the thing to do. You learn from these lessons and hopefully it won’t happen again.”

Collingwood was out the first ball in the game against South Africa which England lost by 19 runs. He claimed he had been taken to the club by friends and was not drinking seriously.

The Collingwood incident will raise comparisons with the more serious ‘Fredallo’ incident during the World Cup in the Caribbean in March. As a result of that Andrew Flintoff was stripped of the vice-captaincy and banned for a match, while five other players were fined after being caught drinking into the early hours of a match day. However, Collingwood’s crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than drinking to excess.

Collingwood, whose captaincy in the current tournament won him praise from Graveney, said he was concentrating on Wednesday’s must-win match against India. “Hopefully we can quickly get over it and concentrate on this game on Wednesday. Mathematically we’re still hoping we can get through.”

Source:Cricket News