Former England captain and current assistant coach of the national side, Paul Collingwood, has been allegedly missing since May 2025 without a single public appearance during this period. Recently, the members of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning squad had gathered for a reunion and Collingwood was a notable absentee for the function. 

Collingwood was last seen during the third Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. During the day’s play, he went off the ground due to ‘personal reasons’ and has not shown up ever since. The World Cup-winning captain wasn’t part of England’s blockbuster home Test series against India and has been absent till date. 

Therefore, Collingwood is also set to miss England’s high-profile Ashes tour in Australia with the replacement yet to be named. Speculations are rife about his absence and his infamous past does not suggest positive reasons. 

An official statement is expected soon, either from the ECB or from Collingwood’s representatives.

Here are some of Collingwood’s past incidents that got him into the limelight albeit for the wrong reasons. 

 

Sex scandals

Collingwood’s history with women is a fabled one. During the 2007 T20 World Cup, he was seen in a strip club in Cape Town. It was only two years earlier that Collingwood had gotten married. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) promptly fined him of £1000. When asked about the incident, Collingwood presented a very soft defence.

“I was taken to an inappropriate bar and when I realised that, I got out of there,” said Collingwood as quoted by Daily Mail.

“In today’s environment that was unacceptable and I hold my hands up to that.”

Another isolated incident was about an audio tape involving Collingwood and multiple women during two hours of alleged sexual activities. Graeme Swann, one of Collingwood’s longest teammates, got to know about this in April 2023 during a podcast and saw the funny side of things.

This incident, though, allegedly happened after Collingwood’s divorce with his ex-wife, which is the point used by Swann to defend his former teammate.

A year earlier, in 2022, there were photos of Collingwood kissing a woman on a beach in Barbados.

Financial losses

During his marriage with Vicky, the couple had a huge financial disaster when they invested an amount in excess of £650,000 to a financial advisor based in Derbyshire. Vicky, an HR professional, made his last public appearance with Collingwood during this timeline and the couple were reported to have lost an amount to the tune of £300,000.

Misfiring investments

For an English player, Collingwood’s earnings were quite consistent and rising through the years in the 2000s. He loved to live life on his own terms and hence, barely realised even when his bank account was having heavy outflow. 

Collingwood made many impulsive investments, the biggest of which came for a firm called Portal Media which claimed to have the goal of building kiosks nationwide. That company became defunct quite a long while ago. 

Tax evasion 

While Collingwood can be excused for making a mess of his high earnings, he certainly hit the self-destruction button by not keeping an account of his taxes. A detailed investigation was carried out into his income stream and it was found that he was diverting his sponsorship money to a third party personal services provider called PDC rights of which he was the sole stake-holder.

Clearly, there were financial implications of this offence and Collingwood didn’t escape the heavy fine that came. In 2008, the three-time Ashes winner was slapped with a tax fine of £196,000.