Alastair Cook

Alastair Nathan Cook (born Christmas Day 1984 in Gloucester) is English cricket's latest run machine. Cook is a stylish left-handed batsman who leads from the front dominating bowlers and he's already made a name for himself at Essex County Cricket Club and for England. His rise to the top is not that much of a surprise as Cook was captain of England's Under-19 team in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, during which he scored two centuries helping England reach the semi-finals.
He was educated at Bedford School where he broke all manner of records with his classy batting. At each stage of his career he has been pushed in and the deep end and boy can he swim! He first played for his school First XI as a first year. When the MCC were a man short for their game against the school, Cook was drafted in and scored an unbeaten century against the 1st XI and was in the 1st XI for the next five years. In 2003, he made 1,287 runs for the school, at a batting average of 160.87 (a school record number of runs). At the beginning of the 2005 season, whilst playing for the MCC, he scored another century, against reigning County Champions, Warwickshire, at Lord's.
He has been marked for stardom by many of the games greats such as Derek Randall (coach at Bedford) and Graham Gooch (coach at Essex), as the ex-director of the England Academy, Rod Marsh.

Off The Mark

2005, was an excellent year for Cook with Essex, ending the season with a first-class batting average of 52.35 including five centuries and a top score of 195. He gave the touring Aussies plenty of fielding practice as he scored 214 in a two-day warm up match in September 2005. In August he was voted Young Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers' Club, and was also named Professional Cricketers Association Young Player of the Year. The following year, just when he was running out of things to polish he was again awarded the Young player of the Year award for the 2006 season.

International Cricket

Originally, Cook was included in the ECB National Academy in the winter of 2005-06, but was called up to the England squad touring Pakistan when the captain, Michael Vaughan, was injured. He was named in the England A team to play in the West Indies, but was again called up to the England squad touring India in February 2006 after an injury to Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick's departure from the tour.
On 1st March 2006 Alastair Cook was one of three cricketers (Ian Blackwell and Monty Panesar being the other two) making their England Test debuts in the first Test against India in Nagpur. Cook opened and made 60 in his first Test innings and 104 not out in his second, becoming only the sixteenth English batsman to score a century on Test debut. He played his first home Test match against Sri Lanka on 11 May (again replacing the injured Michael Vaughan).
He ended the series with an average of 43 with the bat, and also made his One-day International debut, scoring 39 at Old Trafford and 41 at Leeds in England's two defeats against Sri Lanka.
He made a real impact with his century at Lord's in the first test of the following series against Pakistan, scoring 105 off 279 balls. He followed that up in the next test at Old Trafford, Manchester with his third test century in England's first innings. He scored 127 runs off 260 deliveries before being dismissed lbw to Umar Gul. This innings surpassing his previous best of 105 from the previous test. His tally of 403 runs in the series was only eclipsed by captain Andrew Strauss.

Cook In Action

Ashes to Ashes 2006/07

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1st Test

23-27,November, Brisbane, Australia beat England by 277 runs

Australia: 602-9 & 202-1 England: 157 (Cook 11) & 370 (Cook 43)

2nd Test

1-5 December, Adelaide, Australia beat England by 6 wickets

Australia: 513 & 168-4 England: 551-6 (Cook 27) & 129 (Cook 9)

3rd Test

14-18 December, Perth, Australia beat England by 206 runs

Australia: 244 & 527-5 England: 215 (Cook 15) & 350 (Cook 116)

4th Test

26-30 4th Test, Melbourne, Australia beat England by an innings and 99 runs

Australia:419 all out England: 159 all out (Cook 11) & 161 all out (Cook 20)

5th Test

2-6 January, Sydney, Australia beat England by 10 wickets

Australia:393 all out & 46-0 England: 291 all out (Cook 20) & 147 all out (Cook 4)

England V West Indies 2007

1st Test, Lord's

England 1st Innings 553 for 5 (142.0 overs) (AC 105) 2nd Innings 284 for 8 (66.5 overs) (AC 65) Drew With West Indies 1st Innings 437 all out (116.1 overs) 437 all out (116.1 overs) 2nd Innings 89 for 0 (22.0 overs)

2nd Test, Headingley

Kevin Pietersen hit a personal best of 226 as England made 570-7 (Cook making 42) declared and then bowled the West Indies out for just 146. The West Indies faired little better in the 2nd innings making just 141, England winning the match by an innings and 283 runs

3rd Test, Old Trafford

Another victory for England, this time by the much slimmer margin of 60 runs. England making 370 all out (Cook 60) and 313 all out (Cook 106), West Indies 229 and 394. Another record fell as Cook completed his 6th Test Century for England in test cricket becoming the first player to achieve this by the age of 23. Cook also took 4 catches in the match. Not a bad 5 days!

England V India 2007

First Test, Lords

England 298 & 282 (Cook 36 & 17) drew with India 201 & 282-9

Second Test, Trent Bridge

India 481 & 73-3 beat England 198 & 355 by seven wickets (Cook 43 & 23)

Third Test, The Oval

England 1st Innings 345 all out (103.1 overs) and 369 for 6 (110.0 overs) (Cook 61 & 43) drew with India 664 all out (170.0 overs) & 180 for 6 (58.0 overs) Kevin Pietersen hit his 10th Test century to help England claim a draw at The Oval, but India still secured a first series win in England since 1986.

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