In praise of Alastair Cook

As I watched live coverage of the first day of England’s third Test against South Africa at The Oval, a graphic appeared on screen listing the leading run-scorers in Test matches. The familiar personalities were all there, present and correct: Tendulkar; Ponting; Lara. Nestled in at number ten, though — with nearly 11,200 runs in the bank— was England’s very own Alastair Cook. As play got underway, and Cook opened his account at the top of yet another innings for his country, he promptly nudged up to ninth, above the indomitable Allan Border.

At sight of Cook’s name, two things immediately occurred to me. First, he was only the Englishman, amongst a top ten that features two Indians, two Australians, two West Indians, two Sri Lankans, and one South African. This, in itself, is no mean feat; Cook will have done most of his batting here in England, a land traditionally of greener surfaces — and darker skies — less conducive to run-making than the roads of Colombo or Chennai.

Second, Cook was the only opener to make the list. No Gavaskar; no Hayden; no Graeme Smith. Without wishing to dilute the accomplishments of the middle order stars in whose glittering company Cook now finds himself, that is probably because opening the batting, in Test Matches, is about as difficult as it gets — faced, as you are, with fresh bowlers, and a brand new cricket ball apt to seam and swing. Opening up anywhere in the world is one thing. Doing so in England in May — with the ball moving sideways — is quite another.

All of which, for me, makes Cook’s achievement all the more extraordinary. This dedicated, focused, and resilient individual has very much done it the hard way. He is, without doubt, one of England’s greatest batsmen — if not our greatest — and must surely now be considered amongst the finest ever to play the game. After all, when Cook passed 10,000 Test runs last year, aged just 31, he became the youngest man ever to have done so; younger, even, than the legendary Tendulkar himself.

And yet Alastair’s name seems rarely to be mentioned in the same breath as Sachin et al’s. Indeed, his is a brilliance which — cruelly, in my view — is often overlooked. Why, then, might this be so?

It is too simple, I think, to ascribe it purely to the aesthetic — or purported lack thereof — of Cook’s batsmanship. He is an old-fashioned compiler, for sure, but easier on the eye, for one, than the crab-like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who sits at seven in the run-scoring charts. Besides, it is the solid foundation that Cook has so regularly provided that has enabled England’s more stylish stroke-makers to flourish over the years. And, as Graham Gooch — who knows a thing or two about batting — once said, it’s not how; it’s how many.

No: such ennui has more to do, perhaps, with Cook’s rather chequered tenure as England captain, and the 2013/14 Ashes whitewash defeat in Australia, and fallout from the sacking of Kevin Pietersen, in particular.

Cook never struck many as a natural leader, and the suspicion is that he is altogether more comfortable back in the ranks under the new skipper, Joe Root. When former captain Andrew Strauss decided that enough was in enough in August 2012, however, there were scant viable alternatives and Cook, if nothing else, was a safe pair of hands.

While he always led England with honour, though, he may well retain his own misgivings about his time at the helm. Any such regrets may extend, too, to his handling of the “KP” saga. Few emerged from that ugly episode with any credit. But the way in which Cook was treated in the media — by those, such as Piers Morgan, from whom we have come to expect little more; but by those, also, who might have known better — was, at times, appalling, and yet his conduct remained exemplary.

It is likely for this reason, as much as his cricketing talent, that Cook’s England teammates have spoken of their pride at having played in the same side as him. That is a pride that I can only dream of sharing, but I certainly recognise my good fortune at having been alive, and having followed the sport, during the era in which he has expertly plied his trade.

One only hopes that the captaincy, and all that followed, has not dampened Cook’s thirst for the game, and that he will keep on scoring runs for many years yet to come. His most recent 88 at The Oval — made mostly on a difficult opening day, in which he lost his opening partner, Keaton Jennings, for a duck, and watched three other wickets fall to some challenging South African bowling — bodes well in that respect, after a fairly fallow return, by Cook’s high standards, of late.

Cook’s detractors remain, of course. Opinions in cricket are divided, as they are in any sport. But — to those for whom his thousands of runs, 30 Test hundreds, and record number of England caps are still not enough — I leave this remarkable statistic, courtesy of Wisden: Against the six all-time leading wicket-takers amongst Test spinners — Messrs Muralitharan, Warne, Kumble, Singh, Vettori, and Herath — Cook enjoys an aggregate of 598 for nine. If that’s not cricketing greatness, I don’t know what is.

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