Sir Alastair Cook’s exit from first-class cricket was not so spectacular as his departure from the international game. Five years ago, he signed off with a century against India in front of a full house at the Oval. His farewell to domestic cricket last month was at a damp, autumnal, sparsely inhabited Northampton in a match that his beloved Essex, in a forlorn pursuit of the County Championship title, lost by an innings. But he’s not the type to fret about that. He has never pursued the limelight and he’s been around long enough not to expect another perfectly choreographed farewell.
Even so, this is a moment. One of England’s greatest openers and this country’s highest runscorer in Test cricket has come to the end of a brilliant – and unusual – career. Cook played 161 Tests and was never dropped (the likes of Don Bradman, Ricky Ponting and Joe Root all endured that). He missed just one game through injury back in 2006. Even more unusual is the fact that he kept playing for Essex for another five years after withdrawing from Test cricket.
Cricketers who have played at the top level for a decade or more usually call it a day swiftly once they have left the Test arena – that was the case with Mike Atherton, Andrew Strauss, Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan. Only the Test underachievers, like Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash, kept going.
Yet Cook simply explained that he still enjoyed the challenge of batting and the buzz of the dressing room – and you’re a long time retired. He may have become cricketing royalty and a knight of the realm but he was never out to exploit his status. There have never been any airs or graces. He was happy to have a few more years at Chelmsford.
I first glimpsed him when he was batting for England Under-19s alongside his Essex colleague Ravi Bopara. First impressions can be misleading. There was Bopara in his Tendulkar pads caressing the ball silkily around the ground and grabbing the attention. By contrast the left-hander at the other end was a touch gawky, pragmatic and nowhere near as easy on the eye.
But another difference soon surfaced: Cook just kept on batting. Even as a teenager he played the ball not the man; he understood his technique; he knew where he would score his runs (which hardly changed a jot throughout a long career). He was ruthlessly efficient – and fluent – off his legs. He cut and pulled very well, and he knew how to defend. Only when he was in top form and at peace with the world did he unfurl the cover drive. The scoop was spurned. Soon we discovered that he could bat for a long time, without sweating.
His elevation to England’s ranks was not so orderly. In 2006 he was summoned from the Caribbean, where he was with the England A side, to Nagpur in the centre of India, a gruelling journey of almost 24 hours and there the emergency replacement calmly delivered innings of 60 and 104 not out. Here was a tough cookie, an attribute he always disguised rather well. The ready smile, the choirboy looks – and voice – plus an endearingly self-effacing nature sometimes hid the resolve that frustrated bowlers around the world for a dozen years.
An early encounter in 2009 hinted that he knew his own mind. We chatted at an awards lunch and he opined that there were too many first-class counties. I had some sympathy with that argument but wondered how we could possibly reduce the number given more than a hundred years of tradition. “Easy,” he said. “Just chop off those at the bottom of division two”. There was a certain logic to that though at the time this would have meant saying farewell to Middlesex and Surrey. He may think differently now (to the relief of Yorkshire).
A few years later Cook was England captain and we broached the sensitive subject of Kevin Pietersen and his exile from the England team. I started by congratulating him on his pragmatism and vision in bringing Pietersen back for the tour of India in 2012 when England won the series after losing the first Test (perhaps Cook’s greatest achievement as captain). Pietersen batted brilliantly in that series, as did Cook. I was interrupted, “I wouldn’t have picked him if I’d had my way,” he said. Pietersen’s behaviour to Strauss in 2011 had made up Cook’s mind – and he does not change his mind easily.
His batting revealed his fierce determination better than his words. Occasionally, he was deemed to be a tad inelegant for the aesthete, though after his retirement the advent of Rory Burns and Dom Sibley at the top of England’s order sometimes made Cook at the crease look positively Goweresque.
Now we must judge him more by his words as he has become a regular on the radio. He understands the rhythm of Test Match Special, partly because he was a regular listener in his youth. He is maturing fast as a sympathetic, increasingly insightful summariser, never seeking controversy for its own sake. However, now that he has completely retired as a player he may, in time, embrace an even more significant role in the game than gracing the airwaves.
