Hungry Cook
Alastair Cook is a run-hungry batsman, who is superb at filling his plate whenever the opportunity presents itself.
For a man averaging 5 in the current series v India after 2 Tests and four completed innings, he made 294 at Edgbaston yesterday to follow on from his excellent series v Sri Lanka earlier in the summer and 766 runs v Australia in the Ashes last winter.
On the basis that everything in life is driven by intention, it got me thinking about what drives a batsman to make such big scores consistently? The game’s greatest batsman Sir Donald Bradman was a phenomenal example of consistent run-making ability, but others, such as the greatest batsman in my lifetime, Sir Vivian Richards, seemed more intent on dominating the bowlers and getting his team into dominant positions to win a cricket match, rather than just ‘filling his boots’ and impressing the statisticians.
There are some interesting statisitics being presented about individual players’ averages after making a century in a Test. Steve Waugh has an average of 255, due to his number of undefeated centuries and appetite to get ‘big’ hundreds. However, Waugh only made one double-century (200 not out v West Indies in Jamaica). Alastair Cook now averages 213 after making a century in a Test.
Cook has experienced a remarkable transformation in the past 12 months, going from possible exclusion from the Ashes Tour to Australia after a miserable run of form in 2010, before making a century v Pakistan at The Oval, and becoming a legendary England batsman due to his exploits in Australia.
Cook’s appetite for runs has been sated by his run-drought but then again, he has been a prolific ‘run-maker’ since his days under Derek Randall’s tutelage at Bedford School. Maybe his lack of ‘natural talent’ at hitting the cricket ball has meant that he became a pragmatist about batting rather than a stylist?
I believe the character of a man plays a huge part too.
Some love the limelight, and want to play in an egotistical way which singles them out as the dominant player, while others are happy to go about their business quietly, and get the job done with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss. Recognition from others plays less of a part in such a man’s life, it is more about internal satisfaction of a job done well.
Alastair Cook’s character is phlegmatic and relatively under-stated. he seems happy to be part of a ‘wider’ family rather than having a strong need to be seen as an individual. As a cricketer, he has been developed well by Essex, and the wise old heads such as Keith Fletcher and Graham Gooch who were relentless in their desire to establish winning positions for their teams when Captain. Gooch, in particualr, had a remarkable appetite for work in preparing for an innings or a season. He believed in the old mantra: ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’.
Gooch’s influence over Cook’s play and his desire to make ‘daddy’ hundreds (as Goochie calls scores of 150 plus), has shaped the current England opener into a likely challenger of all English Test Match batting records.
The highest individual score is 364 by Len Hutton. The most centuries (22) have been scored by Hammond, Cowdrey and Boycott. The highest number of Test runs in 8,900 (Graham Gooch); the highest Test average (post career) is unlikely to be beaten (60.73 by Herbert Sutcliffe). The highest runs from a batting partnership belongs to Strauss and Cook already. Cook now has 19 Test centuries and an aggregate of 5,834 Test runs at an average of 49.14 after 71 matches; he has the sixth highest English Test score (294) and he is only 26 years old.
There are plenty of milestones to accomplish but I sense they are not part of the drive which fuels Alastair Cook. Batsmen, especially opening ones, have characteristics and certain shots which define them. Geoff Boycott was a great technician who guarded his wicket with his life; Gary Kirsten had an intensity for the battle like no other of his generation; Graham Gooch was a domiant force off both front and back foot while consistently maintaining an appetite for big scores. Others, such as Viv Richards destroyed bowlers with his brutality and violent attitude to his opponents, while Sachin Tendulkar is renown for is driving and touch.
Meanwhile, Alastair Cook just bats and keeps batting: his desire for runs unabated.
