PAUL COLLINGWOOD: England needs to get the fun factor back

They’ll move on but it’s just so disappointing that we’re not in the quarter-finals.

I’ve been in this situation and it’s really tough as a player. You feel as though the whole world is on top of you. You almost feel as if the extent of the inquest isn’t deserved. But they will understand they haven’t performed and I thought they had the most skilful squad that we’ve gone into a World Cup with.

Whether it be the approach or just a lack of confidence that has stifled them in the end, it’s been their downfall and they can’t get away from the fact that they’ve not been good enough and actually really far off the mark.

The frightening thing is that if they’d pushed teams close in the defeats, people would have accepted that, but there’s been such a huge gap between the best teams and England. They will need a mental break now. Although they’ve lost and everyone will want to see them working hard in the nets, these kind of results take a lot out of you emotionally.

They need to get away from the game, away from thinking cricket 24 hours a day and the anxiety of thinking about it all and really try to recharge as quickly as possible for a tour to the West Indies that everyone will have a close eye on after what’s happened over the last few weeks.

It’s a massive year for England. New Zealand will be tough in the Test matches early in the season with the way they swing the ball and have good batsmen and then it’s the Ashes. It’s crunch time but the performances of the past few weeks have almost accelerated that feeling.

A lot of times England respond to that and we all hope they can turn it around and have a great summer. Its doom and gloom at the moment but in a few months I hope the confidence will be back and the players will be back to their best and enjoying the game again. At the moment it doesn’t look like they’re enjoying cricket and you don’t when you’re losing games.

But England need to get that fun factor back and that’s when they play their best.

2015 © ICC Development (International) Limited