Paul Collingwood will consider stepping down as the England captain in the shortest format after his side were knocked out of the World Twenty20 by West Indies at the Brit Oval last night.

Although Collingwood found the latest experience of leading England more enjoyable than the inaugural event in South Africa two years ago, he twice stopped short of saying that he wants to retain the job. “I don’t know,” Collingwood said. “I don’t even know when our next Twenty20 game is. I have not thought about it.”

England’s next Twenty20 international is against Australia at the end of August, but the third ICC event comes around as soon as April next year, when West Indies play host.

Collingwood described elimination by five wickets under the Duckworth/Lewis method as “a cruel way to go out”. England had made 161 for six in their innings — which included a half-hour delay because of a shower — but heavy rain delayed the start of the West Indies innings until just before the cut-off point.

Chasing a revised target of 80 off nine overs, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul added an unbeaten 37 from 20 balls, but the failure of the England lower middle order to hit boundaries again proved costly.

“We have shown fighting spirit all the way through the event,” Collingwood said. “Hitting boundaries in the middle overs is obviously an area to look at for the future. We are catching up with our skills and our thought processes are there, but it is very important we play more 20-over cricket if we are realistic about winning this kind of competition.”

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, said: “England needed a couple of power hitters in the middle overs and lost wickets at crucial moments.”

Although Gayle won $1 million (now about £613,000) along with the rest of the Stanford Superstars for winning the $20 million game that the England and Wales Cricket Board would rather forget, in Antigua last November, he took greater pleasure from the latest success. “Definitely,” Gayle said. “I hope you are not trying to get me into trouble.”

With South Africa, Pakistan and West Indies through, the final last-four place will be determined at Trent Bridge today when Sri Lanka face New Zealand. Younus Khan, the Pakistan captain, said that victory in the final would be dedicated to Bob Woolmer, who died while coaching the team during the 2007 World Cup.

For England, the next challenge is the Ashes, with Collingwood happy to hand over to Andrew Strauss and rejoin the ranks for Test cricket. “Now the time really is right to get our bodies right, our skills right and get ready to beat the Aussies,” he said.