COOK: WHY I FEAR FOR TEST CRICKET
Crash, bang, wallop game is easy money, says ex-captain
Alastair Cook says he fears for the future of longform cricket as the English game struggles to get its head round the ECB’s controversial plans for a new 100-ball tournament.
Cook, the leading runscorer in England’s test history, admitted it would now go against the grain for a young batsman to focus on the skills needed for the five-day game when ‘two-and-a-half-hour crash, bang, wallop’ is more lucrative. ‘But as we all know in this game, money talks,’ said Cook.
‘it’s easy to see that test crowds — although not in this country — are down in numbers,’ he added, speaking at an event to celebrate the return of Yorkshire tea national cricket week (June 18-22) with charity Chance to shine. ‘When i watch twenty20 cricket there’s a different satisfaction. talking to the Essex lads after Fozzie (James Foster) got a very gutsy 69, which probably won us a Championship game against lancashire, the satisfaction is very different from the guy who got 30 off 11 balls for rajasthan royals in the IPL. i wonder if that’s going to be lost if we’re not careful.’
Cook’s defence of tradition came on the day Joe root, his successor as England’s test captain, argued in favour of the Hundred, saying it would ‘appeal to a completely new audience’.
But with the ECB playing down reports that the proposed new 10-ball over will be split between three bowlers, and that the lbw law will be binned altogether, these are uncertain times for cricket.
What is more certain is that priorities are changing. as Cook put it: ‘at the moment, why would you put yourself through the stresses and strains of the five-day game, when you can play threehour, or two-and-a-half-hour crash, bang, wallop?’
Meanwhile, he insisted he still has it in him to score six-hour test hundreds, despite finishing a difficult winter with just 23 runs in four innings during England’s 1-0 defeat in New Zealand. that encouraged speculation that he was nearing the end of a test career that has produced 154 caps, more than 12,000 runs and 32 hundreds — all England records.
‘in New Zealand, i just never got going,’ he said. ‘if you play 100-odd tests, there are going to be periods when you don’t score the runs. i’ve always managed to turn it round. the last six months, i’ve never been quite so inconsistent, but i still averaged 47 last year.
‘But since i’ve come home i’ve started to look at my preparation. Have i got it right? Do i need to change things? Because that’s the right way to do it. i will never sit here and say i’ve cracked the game or will ever be perfect.’
Does he feel under more pressure now England have appointed a new national selector in Ed smith — who will have noted that Cook’s average of 47 in 2017 was entirely dependent on scores of 243 against West indies at Edgbaston and an unbeaten 244 against australia at Melbourne?
‘My job never changes,’ said Cook. ‘it’s to score runs at the top of the order, and there have been times throughout my career when people have questioned my place, like they are questioning it now.
‘if someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don’t want me to open the batting for England it is going to hurt, because i want to carry on.’