Strauss demotion is paper talk - Cook

Alastair Cook has lauded Paul Collingwood for leading England to World Twenty20 glory but believes speculation he he may make a return as one-day captain is nothing more than "paper talk".

Collingwood, who resigned the ODI captaincy in 2008 citing an adverse effect on his form, has earned rave reviews for his leadership in the Caribbean having taken England to their first ever ICC world trophy and the Durham man has since been touted for a return to the 50-over job. Nevertheless, Cook fully expects current captain Andrew Strauss to retain his job in both Test and one-day cricket.

"It's just paper talk, that's all," said Cook. "Straussy is our captain. He's done a great job ever since taking over and I would imagine every one of the lads still sees him in that way."

He added: "Colly has done fantastically well to be captain of a world champion side and he'll take a lot of credit for that but Straussy is still our captain and we're all behind him."

Cook, who was a surprising omission from the 30-man shortlist for the World Twenty20, still has aspirations towards breaking into that squad but admits the dominant performances put in by the current crop have made his task all the harder.

"You see the England side playing and you feel a part of it, so not to be there makes it tough watching in one sense," he added.

"But I was just desperate for the lads to win because it's a great achievement and can only help us as a side in terms of the confidence we'll get from that winning moment and knowing we can beat the world's best .

"They've played some amazing cricket. Just watching from here how dominant they've been was great to see, how much they almost bullied sides.

"We've always been a strong side, always had a lot of good players. But with the success the lads have had this week and with people churning out better performances all the time it's going to be harder to get in to the side and when you are in you need to work hard to keep hold of the place.

"That's all to the benefit of the whole England side that we keep our standards high."