COOKY CRUMBLES
Alastair Cook reveals he cried when telling team-mates he was retiring from England duty
Stoic former captain seemed the seemed the stiff-upper lip type as he racked up run after run for his country
FOR a man who doesn’t break sweat, it was a shock to hear that Alastair Cook shed tears when telling team-mates of his international retirement.
Cook, who makes his 161st and final Test appearance against India at The Oval, seemed the stiff-upper lip type.
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While admitting he wasn’t close to being England’s most gifted batsman, Cook is proud of having wrung out every last drop of talent on his way to becoming his nation’s greatest accumulator of runs.
On his passport, it really should have read: ‘Occupation: Occupation’.
Cook was a man who would bat all day and then come back with the intention of batting all of tomorrow — helped by an unusual physiology which meant his whites were never soaked in perspiration.
The England opener is a Bedfordshire sheep farmer so intense in his concentration that he could count his flock all night without falling asleep.
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Aged 33, yet going on 66, Cook was brought up in an age of certainties. Cricket balls were red. Test matches lasted for five days. And an opening batsman sold his wicket at Mayfair prices.
Now — as the Englishman with most runs, centuries and caps takes his final bow — those certainties are gone.
For as long as many remember, there has always been at least one fixture at the top of England’s batting order.
From Boycott to Gooch, Atherton, Trescothick, Strauss and Cook.
And then there were none. England are blessed with several explosive all-rounders — but don’t have a single reliable player to bat in their top three.
None with that flinty determination to see off the new ball and make the absolute best of themselves.
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Asked for his career highlights, Cook nominated the 2010-11 Ashes triumph and the victory in India two years later, when he was man of the series in an overseas win — another aspect of cricket which is dying out.
Cooky said: “You can’t really look past those series when we won in Australia and India.
“That was the best I could play. I can look back and say I probably became the best player I could have become.
“That actually means quite a lot to me. Yes, I’ve never been the most talented cricketer and I can’t pretend I was — but I definitely think I got everything out of my ability.”
Cook, whose wife Alice is overdue with the couple’s third child, doesn’t believe he is the last of a breed of none-shall-pass batsmen. But he accepts he is part of an endangered species in an era where fame and fortune is increasingly earned among the song-and-dance of Twenty20.
He added: “Naturally, kids are going to be attracted by the razzmatazz.
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“I’ve seen it when youngsters have come into the Essex team. Their attacking game is better than their defensive game. That’s a fact.
“I’m not sure I’m the last of a dying breed but there will certainly be fewer cricketers who are naturally suited to red-ball cricket rather than white-ball cricket. The kids have a diet of T20.
“We had it when I was younger but we didn’t think, ‘I’ll whack it over the keeper’s head third ball’.
“I don’t think we should be scared of that, though. We have to embrace it — and we are embracing it.
“If we play less Test cricket, which might happen, we then must place importance on it. By playing less, it might mean more.”
There have been oceans of tributes since Cook announced his intention to retire on Monday — after England had secured a series win by going 3-1 up against India in Southampton.
He said: “One of my friends rang me to check I was still alive because everyone was talking as if I’d died!
“It is nice when you hear so many good words about you. There have been signs that it was time to go.
“If it were 2-2, I’d have kept my mouth shut but when you get asked questions it’s hard to constantly lie.”
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The former England captain, who will play on for Essex, admitted the biggest regret of his career had been the fall-out from Kevin Pietersen’s sacking.
Pietersen was a brilliant maverick unpopular with many colleagues, while Cook has always been a team man — hence those tears in the Ageas Bowl dressing room on Sunday evening.
He said: “I was a couple of beers in, which I needed to be, otherwise I would’ve cried more than I did.
“I just said, ‘This might be good news for some and sad for others — but it’s time. I’ve done my bit and, if picked, the next game will be my last one’.
“There was a bit of silence, Moeen Ali said something, we all laughed and everyone got on with it. We had a nice evening in the changing room.
“Until recently, I’ve always been mentally incredibly tough and had that edge to everything I’ve done — but that edge had kind of gone.
“The thing I’d found easy before wasn’t quite there and that’s how I knew it was time.”
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