USUALLY they call him Colly, or sometimes Wobbles, which might best describe his bowling. But there is nothing wobbly about Paul Collingwood's place in the pantheon of the world's best fielders.

The stunning catch he took to remove Matthew Hayden at Bristol on Sunday was not the first of that calibre he has pulled off while amassing 72 one-day international appearances for England.

Only last summer he won the NatWest Catch of the Series award after another leaping effort to see off West Indies' Ramnaresh Sarwan at Headingley in July.

At 29, it now looks unlikely that the lad from Shotley Bridge will add to his two Test caps, but even after the sensational emergence of Kevin Pietersen his place in the one-day side continues to look secure.

He has made two centuries - exactly 100 against Sri Lanka at Perth in 2003 and an unbeaten 112 against Bangladesh on Tuesday.

Despite taking six wickets against Bangladesh on Tuesday and recording England's best one-day international bowling figures of 6-31 in the process, he has still only taken only 34 wickets at 38.5.

But the brilliance of his fielding and the way in which he combines dedicated professionalism with being a good mate make his all-round contribution indispensable.

The experiment with Geraint Jones as an opener had pushed Collingwood down to No 7 in the batting order, but he was up to No 4 on Sunday and his adaptability is another reason why he has always found favour with Duncan Fletcher.

It was underlined again by his crucial innings of 46 in the Twenty20 win against Australia last week, only a few days after his first crack at the 20-over game.

Collingwood made his ODI debut against Pakistan at Edgbaston in 2001 in a team in which the only other survivors at Trescothick, Vaughan and Gough. He scored two, and in four matches in the triangular series also featuring Australia he totalled 20 runs in four innings and didn't take a wicket.

But while others such as Owais Shah were jettisoned, Fletcher had seen something he liked in Collingwood, which had as much to do with personality as talent.

Coming from a solid, working class background, he is the product of proud and devoted parents, David and Janet, who watch him whenever possible in England, but don't care to fly.

He is polite, bright and amiable, easy-going yet determined and sensible enough to realise that cricket offered him his best chance of a good living and he might as well make the most of it.

As a late developer, he was considered more of a bowler in Durham's junior teams and batted at nine in his first season in the Under 19s behind the likes of Nick Trainor, who was briefly on the Gloucestershire staff, and Quentin Hughes, who went on to captain Cambridge University.

As a batsman, Robin Weston was considered a much brighter prospect, but there was something in Collingwood's make-up which allowed him to take each step up in his stride.

After impressing in the second X1 in 1995, he made his first-class debut aged 20 the following season, scoring 91 against Northants at Riverside and taking a return catch from David Ripley with his first ball.

The step up to international level wasn't quite so straightforward, but after his tough baptism he went to India and New Zealand the following winter, scoring 71 not out in the second ODI in India.

While failing to distinguish himself with the bat in New Zealand, he took four for 38 in the third match under floodlights at Napier, which remains his best ODI bowling. Prior to that he had three wickets at 101 apiece.

Three months later he made his best first-class score of 190, for Durham against the Sri Lankans at Riverside, then had a top score of 38 against them in that summer's triangular ODI series, which also involved India.

His liking for the Sri Lankans continued with his century at Perth in the 2002-03 triangular series, in which he also made 63 not out against Australia at Adelaide.

Collingwood might have featured in the following summer's inaugural Riverside Test against Zimbabwe - Yorkshire's Anthony McGrath got in instead - had he not been ruled out for the first three months of the season by a shoulder injury suffered in a pre-season match at Old Trafford.

He was still rated highly enough to be awarded a central contract, hearing the news during Durham's match at Bristol in September, when he said: "This is one of the best things that has happened to me. It's a great reward for all the hard work I have done to get fit again."

His two Test caps came against Sri Lanka at Galle and Kandy the following winter, producing a top score of 36. But the success of Rob Key last summer, plus the emergence of Ian Bell, meant Collingwood's central contract was not renewed.

He was still named in last winter's Test squad for the tour of South Africa ahead of Bell, however, which again underlined how highly regarded is his contribution to a touring party.

During his four years as a one-day international his prowess at the one-day game has undoubtedly flourished. But it can be argued that it has prevented his first-class career from blossoming as it might, although injuries have also contributed.

The last three of his seven County Championship centuries have all been against Worcestershire, but there was a long gap between the one in the final match of the 2001 season and the two he has made this year.

Ruled out at the start of the last two seasons, he was available for the first six championship matches this year and also recorded his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket when he took five for 52 against Somerset at Stockton.

Despite his brilliance from cover to backward point in the one-day game, Durham have fielded him at second slip, where he featured strongly in the best slip catching of the county's first-class history in the opening five games.

Along with Mike Hussey and Gareth Breese, he missed nothing until his final match before England duty at Worcester, when two chances went down.

Was he missing Hussey, or was his mind already on the one-day internationals?

Not a bit of it. He signed off with a century and Durham know he will be determined to take up where he left off when he rejoins their promotion battle on two fronts next month.