Alastair Cook Retires from International Cricket

[Prince EWS]

It always just makes me feel old when players who I remember watching on debut in their late teens or early 20s retire after a full career.

That debut was perhaps quite fittingly in India, and I think anyone who watched it and was forced to make a guess as to how his career would go and what sort of player he'd become afterwards would've made a pretty accurate prediction. He made a fifty and an unbeaten ton, both really slowly on a slow road that ended in a draw, but it was his unwavering concentration and immediate ease of adaptation to alien conditions that really stood out from such a young man on debut, and these were features of his both his batting and his captaincy right throughout his career.

I don't usually like commenting on the timing of retirements, as I think players should retire when they don't want to play anymore and not assume the role of selectors, but certainly I think he's at a point where he was unlikely to add much value if he was to continue to play and be selected in Tests -- the only good argument against this being the relatively bare cupboard of English openers and the fact that his partner is probably even worse than the current version of him.

>make a post about feeling old
>it gets liked by someone who was only 1 year old when you joined the forum

Way to rub it in, trundler.

 

[trundler]

>make a post about feeling old
>it gets liked by someone who was only 1 year old when you joined the forum

Way to rub it in, trundler.

Haha that's from around the time you made that legendary backyard cricket post, no? You've been here long enough to watch someone else at that point in their life making similarly stupid posts 15 years later..

 

[Borges]

Bit sad he's gonna end up averaging sub 45, deserves better

He will end up averaging 45 if he scores a double century in his last test.

Would be really nice to see him go out in a blaze of glory; I've been rooting for a big score by Cook in the last two tests, even before this announcement.
Though it does not matter whether his average is sub 45 or not; Cook's legacy is greater than mere numbers on a statistics page.

 

[cnerd123]

Haha that's from around the time you made that legendary backyard cricket post, no? You've been here long enough to watch someone else at that point in their life making similarly stupid posts 15 years later..

No one has reached that level of stupidity

 

[morgieb]

>make a post about feeling old
>it gets liked by someone who was only 1 year old when you joined the forum

Way to rub it in, trundler.

Trundler makes us all feel old. Given that I felt like the baby of the forum for so long trundler being born after 9/11 feels ****ing weird to me.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

You've been here long enough to watch someone else at that point in their life keep making similarly stupid posts 15 years later..

ftfy.

Anyway, was coming and guess he's made up his mind. Now to join the ranks of England batsmen who say stupid **** for a living

 

[cnerd123]

Trundler makes us all feel old. Given that I felt like the baby of the forum for so long trundler being born after 9/11 feels ****ing weird to me.

Imagine what being Burgey feels like.

 

[stephen]

Cook was the player I was genuinely most worried about in 2006/07 Ashes. A young opener who was averaging over 40, partnering Strauss had the potential to make a lot of runs in Australia. It did happen, but 4 years later than I thought. Boy was he immense in that Ashes series.

My fondest memory though was the Harris ball.

He'll leave a gaping chasm in English cricket.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why he kept opening. With his ability versus spin he could have easily dropped down the order and shepherded the tail. No reason why he wouldn't have been a success lower down the order with his ability and it might have kept him going for a few years longer.

 

[Top_Cat]

ftfy.

My posts have improved spectacularly from even a decade ago tbh.

Take from that what you will about their current standard....

 

[slippy888]

Goes down has one of the greatest sportsman to be born in Essex

 

[Kirkut]

I know some of you may cringe at this, but to me he is the greatest opening batsman of all time at his peak.

 

[Indipper]

I know some of you may cringe at this, but to me he is the greatest opening batsman of all time at his peak.

*cringes*

 

[harsh.ag]

I know some of you may cringe at this, but to me he is the greatest opening batsman of all time at his peak.

Of the cut shot, perhaps.

 

[Howe_zat]

Absolutely gutted.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Absolutely gutted.

So's Ishant tbh

 

[BoyBrumby]

There was (is, I suppose, for one more test) something slightly old fashioned, ineffably English and almost quaint about Cook opening.

Although he debuted after T20 one can say his MO bore the stamp of one whose formative years predated the shortest format. Not for him the showy range of shot of batters five or more years his junior. Cook was a man who knew his strengths (the clip off his pads, the slightly stabbed back cut and his incongruously gorgeous pull shot) &, at his very considerable peak, one who had the patience to wait for the ball that fed them.

When a great player retires it's always tempting to say we'll not see their like again, but with Cook the phrase is seldom more apt. A palpably good man and perhaps the last great test specialist?

 

[nick-o]

It feels like the end of an era in more ways than one.
As long as I can remember, there's always been "a great England opener" -- stretching back through Boycott, Gooch, Atherton, I suppose Trescothick filled that role until his health broke down, then Strauss and now Cook. But the line seems to be broken now. I guess it's a bit like the gap between Hutton and Boycott, where there was about a decade without anyone holding the "great England opener" role, but that was before my time. Somehow it doesn't feel right.
Anyway, loved the guy; second favorite of recent England cricketers. Wish him well for the future.

 

[weldone]

So's Ishant tbh

and Ashwin

 

[harsh.ag]

I still have no idea how he could be such a dullard and yet play that pull

 

[vic_orthdox]

and Ashwin

Cook in matches with Ashwin.