PAUL Collingwood's captaincy of England's one-day side has been given Adam Gilchrist's unconditional seal of approval.

Australia's vice-captain, perhaps the greatest player ever to combine wicket-keeping with batting in the game's history, revealed that Collingwood has earned his respect for leading England to victory in Sri Lanka this month-England's first series win on the sub-continent for two decades-and instilling a neversay- die attitude into his England team-mates.

"England have got a lot of good players and I'm not sure if anyone can say they are living off the success of 2005," said Gilchrist.

"Paul Collingwood is instilling a lot of solid discipline and work ethic into the team and he's that hard style of cricketer, so I think the other England players will follow him well.

"He works hard in the field and he's a good fighter, there's no doubt about that, and I think England are a better side with him leading them."

Gilchrist, who bludgeoned his way to a batting average of just under 50 in Tests and a shade under 36 in limited overs internationals, also hailed Durham keeper Phil Mustard as potentially the best of the current crop of would-be England keeper/batsmen.

The former Australia skipper has never played against Mustard but after watching England's one-day series in Sri Lanka was suitably impressed by both his batting and keeping abilities.

"I saw Phil Mustard keep in couple of games in Sri Lanka and he looked very tidy and a very good cricketer," Gilchrist said.

"It's hard to make predictions about cricketers in the early stages of their international careers, and England have tried several keepers in their Test and oneday teams in recent times, but I think Mustard looks like someone who is pleased with his opportunity and he looks promising."

The 35-year-old Gilchrist recently signed for next year's Indian Twenty20 Premier League and admits he has no plans to wind down his career any time soon.

His destructive batting and reliable keeping-Gilchrist is closing on Ian Healy's record of 395 Test dismissals and already owns the most centuries of any keeper/batsmen in history-have played a pivotal role in helping Australia to dominate Test and one-day cricket since the mid- 1990s.

Looking ahead to Australia's forthcoming home series against Sri Lanka and India, Gilchrist remains confident that his country can continue their supremacy of world cricket, despite the high profile retirements of Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, and Shane Warne after whitewashing England 5-0 to regain the Ashes last year and the improvement in other nations.

"I think there's a few teams who could challenge us," said Gilchrist.

"South Africa are always a difficult team but with Pakistan you never know what you are going to get. India are an outstanding unit too.

"They have got a lot of very good young players, and they are improving their record outside India so they will no doubt be a threat.

"England are improving. Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, and Michael Vaughan are world class players and they impress me."