“… the left-hander continually proved that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat and those who do the slaying will, almost without exception, appreciate the efforts of those who lean more towards the staying.”
If following the cricketing news from around the globe is your thing then you won’t need to be a genius to work out who the aforementioned passage is being referenced in relation to.
Well, in fact, it was written by this author a couple of years ago about the retirement of Chris Rogers and it’s just as relevant with Alastair Cook calling time on his international career.
Substance over style, determination over dynamism, application over aesthetics, work-rate over strike-rate and a few more that could quite easily be mentioned.
As time moves on and the sport heads in a direction unrecognisable from as little as just over a decade ago, so those raised in a different era depart from the scene.
Cook is as traditional a cricketer as they come and Test cricket, while a different animal in many senses from when the Essex opener took his initial strides into the format back in 2006, does retain some of the elements that the game continues to cherish.
There is still a place for the ground-out effort, where the result is measured only by the end result; of the willingness to drive the opposition to distraction through sheer stubbornness to blunt whatever is thrown your way and by turn prosper.
Alastair Cook has called it quits (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
It may not seem this way when teams are scoring at helter-skelter rates and the desire to entertain as opposed to occupy is prevalent – a five-day contest anyone? Didn’t think so – but as long as Tests are in existence there will be a place, whatever the naysayers have to offer, for the kind of traits that Cook has displayed for so long.
To survive at the top table for such an extended time – 157 consecutive Tests! – is no mean feat and to leave of your own accord when there is still much you can offer is the path most would choose given the chance.
Is he the greatest of English batsmen? That is nigh-on impossible to judge given the wild variance in opinion which exists and, in truth, is of no real consequence.
He was, still is actually even if the output is not what it once was, very accomplished at what he does and his retirement will leave a gaping hole, and that can comfortably be classed as an understatement, at the top of the order.
In excess of 12,000 Test runs (the most by an Englishman by a country mile) with 32 centuries (also the most by an England batsman) are outstanding numbers and could well remain untouched, certainly by anyone from these shores.
The stellar 2010-11 series in Australia, when Cook was at the peak of his powers, will always be the first point of call when his career zenith is debated, and rightly so given England’s rather pitiful record down under in recent times, but it could be argued that he was never better than in India in 2012.
Alastair Cook (Nick Potts/PA Wire.)
Centuries in successive matches in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Kolkata, the latter two in winning causes, enabled the series to be claimed and demonstrated that the sub-continent – not somewhere England have made a habit of excelling – can be conquered if the method is good and the mentality sound. And, in a microcosm, that was Cook down to a tee.
With a style that was far from fluent and required constant work, that he achieved so much can be attributed chiefly to an exceptionally strong will to succeed and the ability, once set, to really make it count.
Even in the past couple of years, with the runs drying up and the surety he previously provided ebbing away, there were a pair of double hundreds in Birmingham and Melbourne that, if nothing else, showed exactly what was missing at the other end.
At Lord’s this summer, in the opening Test of the season against Pakistan in conditions that had seamers queuing up for a go, Cook battled away to 70 out of a total of 184.
It wasn’t easy on the eye nor was it his best, but it was effective in demanding circumstances and, as it turned out, was pretty much the final hurrah (unless he churns out a few in his final outing) by an exceptional opening batsman.
When sportsmen pack their bags, especially those at the highest level, there is inevitably the wailing of those who see it as all doom and gloom. One thing will never change and that is the fact there is always, whether it is immediately obvious or not, someone else.
Cook’s shoes will have to be filled but they are very, very big shoes to fill.
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
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