In his first 92 Tests he averaged 50 and scored 25 centuries; he was incredible.
In his next 68 Tests he averaged 39 and scored 7 centuries.
2014 started with the finishing touches of that infamous Ashes whitewash, for the next few months Cook had to deal with the Pietersen fall out and being personally attacked by famed cockwombles such as Piers Morgan.
Then came the summer and it started with a 1-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka and Jimmy Anderson crying, then they went 1-0 down to India.
At this point Cook couldn’t buy a run, he was being criticised and attacked from every angle, the list of people calling for him to be sacked or step down was pretty much endless and in pretty much every press conference or interview he was having to defend himself, defend his batting, defend his captaincy, defend his team....lesser men would’ve folded...lesser men might’ve retired altogether, thought is it really worth it?
Instead Cook went out and ground himself out a score of 94, the team went on too win and then take the series.
Before even having really had a chance to take that in though, Cook was back under the cosh for his One Day captaincy, once again being criticised and called to drop the captaincy and be axed from the team, even people he thought of as mates such as Graeme Swann turned up the heat on him and the year eventually ended with Cook being removed from the captaincy and dropped from the one day side a few weeks before the 2015 World Cup....
Most people won’t face the kind of criticism Cook faced in those 12 months in theirs entire career, not just on a cricketing level but the personal attacks as well and despite us never being the best team in the world under Sir Chef, the fact he managed to come from that point, go on to win some big series, score some big runs and regain the Ashes in 2015 is almost incredible, gives an insight into the absolute mental fortitude of the man and also gives a good amount of insight into why Cook retired in 2018, probably earlier than most people would’ve expected, I can’t imagine the amount of strain just that year would’ve put on one man and it probably took 3 or 4 years off of his career.
So I’m having an Alastair Cook day(who doesn’t sometimes..) and I’ve just got to that fairytale ending and honestly, it fucking got me again.
I can’t explain why Cook means so much to me, or at least always just feel like I sound like a massive wiener.(that’s not a good word but it’s accurate.) When he first came into the side, I had no idea who he was but it came at a time when I was playing U15 cricket and being consistently chastised by my own team mates for being a more ‘traditional’ player(not the words they used ‘fucking boring twat’ was probably more similar..) in a time when everyone else was starting to turn to the ways of t20 and smashing it out of the park, I was low, my own team didn’t want me and then here steps out this bloke batting in the same vein, attritional, protect your wicket at all costs...I needed Alastair Cook at that point, I needed someone to validate what I was doing, to stop me trying to change everything about myself and he did and then he went on to become, well, everything he went on to be.
I will never not well up watching that final innings, the way he showcased the best of himself one last time, the pure respect shown from all angles all the way through, that never ending ovation when he got 100 and again when he was dismissed for the final time. It was just beautiful, it really, really was.
Also pure class from Kohli and the Indian side that week too, with the guard of honour, I think Kohli shook his hand every time he walked to the crease and then every single Indian player running across to shake his hand as he walked off one more time was again, a beautiful moment.
Hi Cricket fans,
Kindly asking for genuine, completely honest feedback. I've just launched a new sports platform called Levellr, that allows fans to buy experiences from their favourite athletes.
As a huge cricket fan, we've focused on signing cricketers so far, and we have Sir Alastair Cook, Sir Andrew Strauss, Phil Tufnell, Chris Woakes and Heather Knight on the platform already: www.levellr.com
You can get a number of experiences with them, ranging from monthly classes on bowling or batting technique, personalised videos, digital talks to in-person nets session at Lords or Edgbaston.
I'm honestly not here to sell, we're such an early stage business that our current number one focus is to find out if we are creating something that cricket fans (you!) and sports fans would actually want from their favourite athletes.
So if anybody has two minutes to spare, can you tell me what you like and dislike about Levellr and the experiences our cricket athletes are offering (n.b we will have other cricketers from other countries soon, we are just at testing stage with our first athletes!). Big thanks to all to help out!
Serious question. As an Aussie, I thought cook was going to go on forever. Brilliant player and captain. Especially after the horror of Kevin Pietersen dividing the English side.
