Sir Alastair Cook said he is "bored" of England captain Joe Root's positive spin on the Test series defeat by the West Indies. The side’s former skipper slammed the England hierarchy as “deluded” and accused them of losing a sense of reality of the current crisis in the red ball format.
Root insisted on looking on the bright side of yet another loss in the Caribbean, and interim coach Paul Collingwood was surprised to see the star batsman under such scrutiny. In response, Cook wrote in his Sunday Times column: “I am a bit bored with all the positive chat because I don't think it was a sense of reality in that changing room.
"All the noise was that 'we've turned a corner and our attitude is brilliant'. Some of that stuff should have been a given. I don't know what's being said behind closed doors but I'm struggling to see as many positives as they are. And is that slightly deluded? The word's been put out there.
“Some of the stuff coming out [from England], with all this positivity. We've just lost again, we've won one in 17. That's the reality, and it hurts. But if you own that, as a side, that could be a step forward."
Cook is also keen to see bowling greats Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad given a adequate send-offs when they choose to retire from the sport. "They're right up there with the best bowlers ever to play the game,” Cook said.
“Hopefully they do get that chance, but tell that to Jimmy and he'll say, 'I'm not thinking about retiring, I'm still playing until I'm 75.' He's thinking, 'I want to get back in that Test side and prove they shouldn't have left me out.' But if you're talking about deserving a send-off, of course they deserve it. It makes it an interesting summer, doesn't it?”
Root took to his social media channels last week and wrote: “A difficult defeat to take because I really think there were a lot of positives to come from the way we played for the vast majority of this series.
“Thank you to our amazing fans out here in the Caribbean and congratulations to (West Indies captain) Kraigg (Brathwaite) and his team. After a long winter, it’s time to take a break and recharge ahead of the summer, but I believe in the future of this team.”
