England see Kenya as banana skin, says Collingwood

GROS ISLET, St Lucia, Mar 22 (Reuters) England are concentrating fully on Saturday's World Cup Group C decider against Kenya and are not worrying about being eliminated, batsman Paul Collingwood said today.

Whoever wins the St Lucia match will qualify for the Super Eights along with New Zealand, while a washout would put England through because of their better net run rate.

England have had a shaky start to the tournament with a defeat by the Kiwis, a late night drinking scandal and an unconvincing win over Canada.

''They are a potential banana skin but we have to try to put that out of our minds,'' Collingwood told reporters. ''Once you start thinking like that it can cause you trouble.

''It's a must-win game and we've done as much preparation as possible off the pitch, looking at the laptops and looking at their bowling actions and we've spoken to a couple of the Kiwi guys about them.'' All-rounder Andrew Flintoff was stripped of the World Cup vice-captaincy and dropped for the Canada match after his involvement in Friday's late night antics, which included taking a pedalo out to sea.

Collingwood was the on-field captain for a short period in the World Cup warm-ups when Michael Vaughan and Flintoff were resting, and the 30-year-old would be willing to take over again if Vaughan's recent injury jinx returns.

''The most important thing is that Michael Vaughan is 100 per cent fit, which is great, but if the vice-captaincy job came up I would be more than happy to do it,'' Collingwood said.

''I'm not sure whether they will announce anybody, they will probably wait until Michael misses a game or has to go off the pitch and make a decision then depending on who is in the team.'' If they progress, England will start the Super Eights against Ireland in Guyana on March 30.

The seven-week World Cup culminates in the Barbados final on April 28.

Reuters DH VV2226