Cook Calls It a Day

The big breaking news on Monday afternoon was the announcement that Alistair Cook is to retire from international cricket after the fifth and final test against India.

This summer hasn’t been kind on Cook. The former captain has so far achieved just one score of 50+ out of six tests so far this summer and his position in the side was becoming increasingly questioned. This was acknowledged by Cook in his statement, saying that "he’d given everything" and that he had "nothing left in the tank." He had a phenomenal career on the world stage, but most would agree Cook has picked a good time to call it a day. A new opening partnership was required for England, better to get on with finding one sooner rather than later.

Personally, the fondest memories I have of Cook was being unable to sleep, turning on Test Match Special with the wind whistling around the house and heavy rain coming down in a typical English winter night to hear that Cook was batting long and well into another dominant day for England in Australia. It was a special time to be part of that phenomenal English top four of Cook, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott, and Kevin Pietersen and Cook in particular showed how to bat against the old enemy down under.

In his time in the side, Cook has gone on to not only pass Graeme Gooch as England’s leading test run scorer, but push himself way out in front at the top of the list. With one test remaining, Cook sits on 12,254 runs and he’ll be hoping to add one more decent score before he retires. Regardless of the outcome at the Oval next week, he deserves a legendary send off.

During what has turned out to be his final series, several batsmen have been woefully out of form. Cook was no exception, perhaps his impending retirement was in the back of his mind; he didn’t receive a great deal of help from his team mates.

He had his critics, as has almost every player to play in his position, but the fact that Cook has kept his place shows either that he did enough when in form to have the ECB stick by him or the apparent "boys club" which exists within the England set up is real. This is an entirely separate argument all together; I don’t want to go too deep into that as it feels as though it’s a way of trying to put the dampeners on a fantastic career. As is seemingly the case with certain members of English cricket.

It can be argued Cook has had his work cut out due to the fact in recent years he’s had to open the batting with a different player almost every other series. 12 opening partners in six years has got to be challenging in international cricket; especially when very few have found any form. its been hard for Cook to develop anything close to a long-term batting partnership making his last few years tougher than they perhaps should have been.

Cook’s career with England can be looked upon as a huge success. England are not in the best shape, but he has been a major part of some of his country’s greatest cricketing successes in the last 10 years. Despite the poor periods of form, Cook will be a hard player to replace and with two winter tours on the horizon the new man to take his place will be certainly thrown into the deep end.

From scoring 766 runs in the Ashes victory to the not one, not two, but three double centuries over the years; Cook showed that he could be counted on to bat England out of holes and onto victory on dozens of occasions. It’s the end of an era and he’ll be fondly remembered but the new era for England needs to take priority with the tour of Sri Lanka looming large in the coming months.