Alastair Cook talks about his life outside of cricket after Ashes heroics
Leading man: Cook celebrates his first Test century at Brisbane which set the tone for his starring role in England's magnificent Ashes-winning series
Alastair Cook had been in his new house only three days and most of his life was still in boxes. There was, however, one item he was particularly keen for visitors to see. It was a photograph, Cook crouching in best shooting gear, rifle cocked handily over his shoulder, dead Chinese water deer at his feet. It was a bit gory.
That it had been taken the day before and was already framed suggested Cook was rather proud of his marksmanship. The deer was his first. It had rotten luck to be standing there, really. Few amateur hunters have an eye-in like Cook right now.
If the image jarred it was perhaps because we misunderstand Cook. We know that he was a St Paul's Cathedral choirboy and that he shuns Twitter, Myspace and the trappings of modern celebrity. We know he lives near a farm in Bedfordshire with his childhood sweetheart, farmer's daughter Alice, and we think this makes him meek and introverted.
The Australians believed that, too, until his 766 runs and record-breaking 36 hours at the crease revealed a core of true grit this winter.
'I haven't got to here by being soft, by being walked on,' Cook says. 'Nobody walks over me, ever, and no-one will walk over me, ever. You don't get to the top in professional sport without being hard and tough, but I do that in my way. I don't shout or scream, but I am determined and I will push harder than 99 per cent of cricketers in training.
'That is as much my character as any other perception that people might have. I'm not some little soft touch. I will never take! a backw ard step when batting, but I want to be respected as a nice guy, too. I don't think you have to be this macho man all the time, just because you play sport.'
Even so, he's very pleased with that dead deer. And, in a quiet way, of his achievements in Australia, too. The other morning, Cook was driving along a back lane near the farm in Leighton Buzzard when the driver of an oncoming vehicle stopped to warn of an icy patch up ahead. As the man began to talk, he did a double take and Cook was treated to one of those ego-stroking moments of celebrity recognition. Remarkably, for an England Test cricketer, they remain rare enough to be savoured.
Farming the strike: Cook and partner Alice relax down on the farm
'Look, I'm no David Beckham, but that would never have happened before,' he smiles. 'I might have had the odd look in Tesco's, but no more. I know that in a few weeks' time the Champions League will be back on, everything will die down and people will forget the Ashes, but for a short time this makes me happy because we did achieve something special and it is nice for that to be acknowledged.
'It's just a shame we never all came back together, really. I'm not talking about having some open-bus tour - I didn't want that - but it did feel horrible for a handful of us to return after the Tests. It was a sad ending to what had been an incredible time.
Marksman: Cook poses with thedeer he killed
'In many ways, we've had the good part because we've got people coming up while it is all still fresh, saying they never thought they would enjoy cricket so much! , or tha t they were waking up at five in the morning and going into work in a good mood. To know that people were watching cricket and it was cheering them up is wonderful.'
Cook's part in creating that positive vibe cannot be undervalued. If England were batting first, it was his resilience that invariably set the tone for the day. If England were responding to Australia, Cook led the charge from the front. That is the duty of the opening batsman, the hardest job in modern team sport.
All batting pitches 11 against one in a mood of hostility and intimidation: for an opener, intensely so. The bowler has the new ball and quite often the most volatile conditions of the day; the fielding team knows that to break the opening partnership early is vital. There is a very real danger of getting hurt, for an Englishman on foreign soil in often unrelenting heat, and plenty of time in which to lose concentration or be crushed psychologically by dark fears of failure.
Then there is the sledging, what Steve Waugh, the former Australia captain, would call mental disintegration. After contemplating the daily lot of the opening batsman, taking a penalty or scoring a try is a cakewalk.
'There is a video of me in the garden,' Cook recalls, 'my older brother bowling to me, dad on the camera. I must have been watching cricket on television before because I was doing my Robin Smith warm-up, crouching like he used to, the pads up to my chin, helmet on, the full lot. I walked out to bat as if I was playing for England and was out first ball. It's all there on film, the tears, the tantrum, my brother celebrating. That is what I was like. There was a lot of temper when I got out, a lot of tears.
'But as I grew into my teenage years I mastered it, and that set me apart. Maybe it still does. There are others who play better shots, I know that, but from early on I was better at understanding the mental side. That is what you must get through.
'I watch young players at Essex now ! and I kn ow who I think are the best batsmen, but I can't say for certain who will survive. The best shot players might not have the mental strength.
Bat out of hell: Cook overcame a torrid series against Pakistan last summer to smash batting record after batting record Down Under
'In football, in rugby, miss a tackle and there may be 79 minutes to go. In cricket, nick off for nought and that's it. There is nobody else to blame and you have to admit that you, alone, messed up, but that you let a team down at the same time. That is why I think it reduces people to tears. I wouldn't cry on a cricket field now, but I was probably close to it during the Pakistan series when I just couldn't score runs.
'Cricket makes you look at yourself but I suppose the older you get, the more you know yourself as a batsman. Graham Gooch said that when he turned 30 he knew how to score runs and, having had so many life experiences through batting, finally felt comfortable. He had the right balance of determination and being philosophical about failure.
'Most young batsmen have dominated at school, for their clubs, and have never had that period when they can't score. Then they come up against some seriously good county bowling and it all changes. The first year might be OK because you are new, but by the second year they have worked out how to bowl to you and it becomes a struggle. For the first time you are failing. And, as most county contracts are two years long at first, just as you need to impress, your form slumps. And that is the toughest time.
'I've heard players like Mike Atherton and Michael Vaughan talk about opening and their attitude is that the opening bowlers are paid to get you out and have the best conditions to ! do it. S o sometimes you just have to accept they will do their job. You nick off the new ball, and wait for the next time.
'Every Test cricket team in the world talks about getting through the first hour because the odds are always against you. But, if you do survive, you are set and they are coming back for their second spell knowing they didn't get you out first time with everything in their favour. So it is steep initially, but then the rewards are huge.' He pauses. 'I would never want to be anything other than an opener.'
The days of tears and tantrums must seem an age away now. Cook returned from Australia a new man, with a claim to be among the finest opening batsmen in the world.
'What happened this winter has proved to me I can do something special, playing at the highest level,' he says. 'I do not know how it will affect me from here, but, if this doesn't give me confidence, nothing will. I've never been man of the series before, I've only been man of the match twice, but now I know if I get it right I can be there with the best in the...,' he trails off, '...thing.'
Steely eyed: He may have a choirboy image, but Cook insists he is hard underneath
It is as near as Cook will ever get to blowing his own trumpet (although he apparently plays a mean saxophone). 'I hope it has given me that bit of extra confidence. I still think I can get better. I don't believe Australia was a one-off, I don't believe I was in the zone. Things worked out for me on the tour and time at the crease flew, but I do not believe it was anything mystical that cannot be recaptured. There is no zone. If Roger Federer is playing to his fullest, it is not some supernatural experience. He's the best tennis player in the world and, on a good day, will beat anyb! ody.
'When I was 199 with the field in and Xavier Doherty bowling, I did think, "I'm going to make 200 here, I'm not going to screw this up now", but that isn't the zone.
'We ground them down consistently and by Sydney we knew we had them. We got so many big scores, that they must have been thinking, "Here we go again". Australia can still be intense in the field, but no team can keep that up for 15 hours. They just got quieter and quieter and we are much better at not giving a team a chance when we have them like that.'
I'm a celebrity, get me out of here: Cook made a guest appearance at the National Television Awards, but he shuns the celebrity lifestyle
And then you return the sledging, with interest? 'God, no. I never sledge. You can only ever lose. Even if you're on 150, if they get you out they have the last word. So what is the point? Why aggravate the bowler? Leave him alone. I went through a stage two years ago when I felt I had to be eye-balling them all the time, just to make my mark, but it wasn't me. I was forcing myself, it wasn't natural.
'Anyway, sledging isn't as clever as people think . Most of it is just high testosterone, rude and crude stuff, "You're an idiot," things like that. I'd work a ball off middle stump and the bowler might say, "What do you think you're doing, miss that and you're out".
'I'm sure if you got two guys together with enough wit and intelligence you might get these famous exchanges that you read about, but most of the time it's just, "f*** off, you're s***". There was no sledge on the tour that made me laugh, put it like that.
'Maybe years ago guys went out there with funny lines prepared, but in my experience it is just! aggress ion. The only time I laughed was when I heard the Barmy Army's Mitchell Johnson song. We all laughed out loud at that.'
Cook's passive approach perhaps lulled the Australians into a false sense of security - not to mention his average of 25 against them in 10 matches. It drives his partner Alice to distraction, he volunteers. She says 'Someone could steal the car and Cooky would just say, "Happened. Don't worry, we'll sort it out tomorrow". And I'm running around saying, "Somebody stole the car". Not that anyone has stolen the car.'
Cook continues: 'I'm just laid back. I don't get flustered. I wouldn't change, even if I was made England captain. I am not soft. I just want to be myself. I think one of the worst attributes of sports people is taking what happens on the field home with them.
'I do my training in the morning, then in the afternoon come to the farm and see where I can help, lambing or rolling a field with the tractor. I love it and Graham Gooch loves that I have other things in my life.
Sheepish: Cook's passive approach perhaps lulled the Aussies into a false sense of security before the series
'You can't think of cricket 24 hours daily, you won't be fresh and ready mentally, you would worry yourself into a permanent palaver. Let's face it, a sheep doesn't care how many runs you've scored. That helps you step away.
'I'm not on Twitter, I'm not on Facebook, I'm not on Myspace, I'm not on any of those. I've got no interest in setting up an account, it's not really what I'm about. Look, I know why people tweet, and I quite enjoy reading Jimmy and Swanny's stuff. But celebrities who don't know each are having conversations, just because they're famous. It's a very strange world. I! find it amazing how it has taken off. I suppose we all know why, really. But I prefer my life as it is.'
Cook disappears to gather cricket gear for the photo shoot and, when he returns, muses once more on the change he has undergone this winter.
'I don't think Australia underestimated my character, they just hadn't seen the best of me,' he says. 'Nobody had. I surprised myself really - nothing in my record suggested I'd do anything like that.'
He could have been talking about the grisly image he was about to fix to the wall of his lounge. From here, it would seem that opening bowlers - and Chinese water deer - must consider themselves on notice.
Comments