I’ve been there, Alastair...best to focus on the cricket

When Alastair Cook made his s comments yesterday about Shane Warne’s criticisms of him, he spoke from the heart.

It may not have been the wisest thing to do: you can never beat the media. And for the first time in his reign, even more so than in Australia, he looks and sounds like a man who’s feeling the heat. But he spoke from the heart. Captains are under so much scrutiny from so many critics that it’s tempting to shout: ‘Look, I’m trying my hardest!’ But it’s still not advisable to respond to Warne in that way.

I’m not saying any captain can get it right all the time. I remember giving a three-fingered salute to Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Jonathan Agnew in the Lord’s media centre after I made a one-day hundred batting at no 3 against India. I had no personal animosity towards any of them, but I had used what they said to fire me up. And my reaction obviously told everyone I was pretty fired up. These things happen. We’re all human.

Some people will have listened to Warne over the last couple of years and wondered whether he’s gone too far in his criticism of Cook. But I can assure you that Warne has no issues with Cook the man — just with Cook the captain. he’s paid to give his views. It’s true Warne can be repetitive. But he has a fantastic cricket brain and Cook should try to ignore the repetitiveness and focus on the content. It’s always worth bearing in mind how your reaction to criticism is going to be greeted. When Cook wakes up this morning, the headlines will be all about him and Warne. But his main battle has to be with Sri Lanka’s bowlers. It has to be about finding a way to deal with the pitched-up delivery that attacks all round the world now know is the way to get him. Anything else is just going to cloud his mind.

It’s not good taking on the media. You’ll never win. Scoring runs and winning Test matches is the only currency that matters right now. Besides, I actually thought there were signs of progress in the way he led england at Lord’s.

Alastair and I spoke very briefly on the field during his benefit game at Chelmsford recently, but it lasted a few minutes and wasn’t about leadership. My phone is always on.

Yes, captaincy can be a lonely job. But he’ll find it becomes easier if he focuses on the things that matter: adding to his tally of over 8,000 Test runs and 25 hundreds and helping england rediscover winning ways.