“I’ve never quit on anything…..I’m incredibly proud to be England captain. If someone decides I’m not the right person to do the job, then fine. Until that moment , I’m desperate to try turn English cricket round.” – Alistair Cook
Words of defiance from a man who knows the knives are being sharpened and certain quarters of the media and (once supportive) public are baying for blood, will not be enough to keep the hounds from the door.
Alistair Cook’s primary role in the team was to score runs – not polish the ball between overs because he sweats the least – and has done so with such regularity that he has fast entered English cricket folklore and the record books.
However, as the nation’s leader, concerns have been growing about Cook’s ability to captain at international level; victory away in India and an Ashes series win last summer at home, being the high-water mark of his tenure, has fast become forgotten amid the noise and rancour of poor results and his captaincy style.
From the beginning of his international career he was touted as a future England captain – just as Joe Root is being put forward incase Cook is fired or abdicates the throne – with no real evidence that he was up to the task.
As impressive an achievement those two series wins are is not in question. Runs are a batsman’s currency and victories are a captains.
Should one dry up, a captain can rely on the other to get him through the tough times. Cook has neither.
Cook has gone 12 Tests without a century, overseen the farce of a 5-0 whitewash, the Kevin Pietersen saga, coaches resigning and being fired, dismissing his batting mentor, Graham Gooch himself and threatening to resign the ODI captaincy in Australia.
His mind is frazzled and the pressure over is “conservative” captaincy, media battles and a humbling 1-0 series loss to a limited Sri Lanka team, has left Cook on the brink.
Public opinion is turning, calls for his head are mounting. How did it come to this? Waging a phoney war with past captains, players and the media will only tighten the noose.
The 29-year-old has not helped himself by having a public spat with the master of mind games, Shane Warne.
Warne is highly regarded for his cricket brain, tactical nous and informative insight of the game.
One of cricket’s most respected television broadcasters, former Australian captain, Richie Benaud, described Warne as the greatest player never to captain Australia.
That Benaud holds Warne in high esteem while Cook flat bats any notion of picking the great man’s brains indicates a certain arrogance and disregard.
Rebuking someone of Warnes stature with disdain and calling for “something to be done” only highlights Cook’s scrambled brain at the moment.
The former leg-spinner’s comments may be “negative” but he is on the money when he said:
“When I’m asked my opinion I’ll tell you what I think and that is Alastair Cook needs to be more imaginative.”
Warne’s reputation for foresight and planning and execution set him apart from every player of his generation. His take on Cook, equally so.
Speaking before England’s 5-0 Ashes humiliation, he said:
“Alastair Cook can be negative, boring and not very imaginative, still win and be very happy.
“But I think if Australia play well and he continues to captain the way he does, I think they [England] are going to lose the series. I don’t think he can captain the side like that.”
“He lets the game drift. He waits for the game to come to him… to me, I don’t like that style of captaincy and when you’re playing against the best sides in the world under pressure it won’t hold up,” he added.
This was evident on the fourth day of the second Test versus Sri Lanka at Headingley.
Cook’s tactics were baffling; field placings were terrible to Angelo Mathews, giving him boundaries with the field up and singles to keep strike and protect the tail, enabled his opposite number score 160 and take the game away from England.
His use of James Anderson and Stuart Broad defied logic; bowling them into the ground; the selection of Moeen Ali as the front line spinner, using him reluctantly, only enhances Warne’s critique of him.
Mahela Jayawardene twisted the knife, echoing Warne’s assertion by implying that this England team under Cook, are mentally brittle, said:
“We’ve seen that under pressure they’re not up to it.”
Cook took umbrage to this during the post match presentation, saying that he thought it was “unfair” of Jayawardene because the (distant) past’s results didn’t reflect that.
Cricket, like all professional sport, is a tough, results driven business. Social media added to a blood-thirty press and murmurs and whispers of an axe potentially being wielded, will only go away if Cook starts winning and scoring runs.
This will not happen by whining and picking fights through hubris and stubbornness, but by learning from mistakes and being adaptable to different game scenarios.
India arrive soon and nothing but a series win can keep the captain from going down with the ship. Talk is cheap and money buys the whiskey, so they say.