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Alastair Cook

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An average of 44/45 as an opener in England, over such a long period, and at a time when being an opener in England has - contrary to popular wisdom about the bat dominating the ball - become more difficult (ample stats back this up) is absolutely outstanding.

He has been a terrific batsman - and I'm not sure we'll see his like again.

BOYCEY said:
He was last week criticised by mentor Graham Gooch who accused his old pupil of “flat-lining”.

"My concern would be watching him that I don't see any improvements in his game," Gooch told Radio 4.

"I think he's flat-lining a little bit. When you're a batsman, you need to improve yourself, you need to look for new things to do to drive you forward."

"I don't know how he's practicing and I don't know what he's doing away from the game, but I am concerned when I see him play," Gooch said. "I think he makes similar mistakes but even at 33 or 34, you can improve yourself."
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Show some respect Goochy. He's better than you were.
 
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Guy in my office is saying - right, well if he's not available after Oval and we need to look at new players coming in we should drop him now. No place for sentiment...

Absolutely unbelievable some people!
 
jayjaysafc said:
Pretty harsh from Gooch, every top batsmen have got themselves out stupidly on more than one occasion
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It's an unnecessary comment. Why's he raising stuff about his commitment? He's out of form and time is catching up with him.

Gooch clung on too long - he's the exact example we want to avoid. Cook was a better player and surely Gooch could have spoken to him before popping off to the media about his commitment?

Really unimpressed with that from Gooch.
 
Correct decision. Hard part is making sure we can create a complimentery partnership at the top of the order

Comeback_Kenwyne said:
It's an unnecessary comment. Why's he raising stuff about his commitment? He's out of form and time is catching up with him.

Gooch clung on too long - he's the exact example we want to avoid. Cook was a better player and surely Gooch could have spoken to him before popping off to the media about his commitment?

Really unimpressed with that from Gooch.
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He might have spoken to Cook first, we dont know. They were very close so id assume the would still talk
 
thought we might see one more masterclass over the winter but he's earned his right to bow out any time he likes, a genius when he was in full flow
 
Tribute:
Thanks for your service. Fantastic player in his prime and will always be remembered for demolishing the Aussie bowling in 2010/11. Also a decent captain, all round good bloke and fantastic slip fielder.

Discussion:
Legendary in the first half of his career, pretty average from 2014 onwards, one or two double tons on flat batting tracks aside.

Gooch is spot on, he has flat-lined (I'd actually say regressed looking at the way he got out in the second innings at Southampton). I would rather see Ramprakash and Thorpe given the bullet and new batting coaches brought in to work with Cook: they have failed all our batsmen, not just Cook.

Also, why the hell do we have this situation where a senior player has to announce his retirement to give the selectors 'permission' to drop him and pick another player? All players - regardless of their background - should be available for selection and non-selection, depending on form, and consider it an honour to play for their country. It's a jobs for the boys mentality we really need to get away from - just look at how Moeen and Buttler responded to being dropped and reselected.
 
Talking about his future down the pub yesterday and the general consensus was that he'd be dropped after this series unless he had a 100+ innings in the 5th test.

Seems to me that he's been given the option to jump before being pushed. He'll be a big miss and its one massive hole to fill in the future.
 
Pre 2014 he was fantastic, after that he has been very poor. Sadly it won't be difficult to replace him because most county players could score 15 and get out.
 
JL1985 said:
Pre 2014 he was fantastic, after that he has been very poor. Sadly it won't be difficult to replace him because most county players could score 15 and get out.
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Harsh but true

Trouble is, that's pretty much all we're likely to get from anyone. They aren't going to improve if they're under central contract and working with Bloodaxe.
 
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