Alastair Cook: ‘Steve Smith is redefining what is possible as a batsman’

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The former England captain on Australia’s ‘freak’ run machine, the psychological battles all cricketers face and why less could be more for the future of Test cricket

“As cricketers we fail all the time,” Alastair Cook says as he remembers how, exactly a year ago, on 10 September 2018, his final Test match innings unfolded like a beautiful fairytale. “You score a hundred every now and again but you get out between 0 and 20 far more often. If you get 50, you feel bad because you should have got a hundred. Even if you get a hundred, you feel you should have got 150. So you’re always failing.”

Cook had worried about bagging a pair in his last Test but he made 71 in the first innings. Then, driven by the determination which means only Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid scored more runs than he did in his 161 Tests, Cook hit a magical 147 in the second innings.

His new autobiography still carries an opening line in which Cook apologises to his teammates for getting out in that game against India at the Oval. He was only 33, and fitter than ever, but Test cricket had drained him and sealed his international retirement.

England, who failed to win back the Ashes when they were beaten by Australia at Old Trafford on Sunday, have missed Cook terribly. His tenacity and the sheer weight of his runs would have tempered the domination of Steve Smith. But Cook has been refreshed, while playing county cricket for Essex, and produced a fascinating and layered book which delves into the psychological challenges of the game.

Written with the consistently excellent Michael Calvin, Cook’s autobiography is a timely read at the end of an exhilarating yet flawed summer for English cricket. From an incredible World Cup final to a gripping Ashes series where his former teammates have veered from the heroic to the shambolic, Cook has been absorbed.

Yet it seems right to start with Tuesday’s anniversary of his final innings. He and Calvin have written an evocative first chapter about that blissful day, even if much of the book covers darker terrain, and Cook says, “One day I’ll watch it ball by ball. On the highlights you look quite a good player – but I played and missed five times in a row against Mohammed Shami. When I finally hit one I had a massive smile.”

Cook grins again. “Most people get the terrible phone call saying you’re dropped, and never playing again, which takes a long time to get over. The fact that I went out on my own terms, with an ending like that, made it so special. I had 30 of my friends in the box when I got that hundred. You can’t buy that sort of stuff.”

England can’t buy another opening batsman like Cook. They are being made to pay for neglecting the basics of Test cricket while prioritising the World Cup. “The country is going through one of those little periods where they’re a bit short,” he says of the dearth of opening batsmen. But Cook concedes that, once Andrew Strauss retired in 2012, none of his 14 subsequent opening partners lasted. That “little period” stretches across seven years.

Sam Robson was interesting,” Cook says as he picks out one of the 14. “He did ok, and scored a hundred in his second game, but kept on getting out the same way. In Test cricket there are few hiding places and you’re not used to the scrutiny.”

Preparing for his final Test innings in 2014, Robson seemed transfixed as he watched a montage of his previous dismissals on television. “It wasn’t his fault,” Cook says. “The TV was on, we’re waiting to bat and he saw himself get out again and again. Unfortunately he was out the same way and hasn’t played since. It would be interesting to ask Sam what he remembers of his Test career [with an average of 30.54 after seven caps] and how he would change it. Sam felt the difference between county and Test cricket and those are the players the ECB should speak to so we can help educate the next guys.”

Has Cook spotted any county batsmen who could emerge as significant Test players? “I’ve seen some good players but not an obvious one where you go: ‘Ohh!’ Harry Brook at Yorkshire looks a serious talent – particularly against spin. [Rob] Yates at Warwickshire is definitely in my mould and grinds it out. He’s very organised.”

Brook is 20 and Yates only 19 and so it will take time for England to develop new batsmen. Rory Burns and Joe Denly, who batted doggedly on Sunday, will open for the second successive match when the fifth Test begins on Thursday.

Smith has been the overwhelming difference between the teams as his Ashes scores have been 144, 142, 92, 211 and 82. “He doesn’t look like he’s one of the best ever,” Cook says wryly of Smith’s style, “but he’s operating on a different level. I’ve always had Lara, Ponting and Kallis as the three best batsmen I’ve ever seen. Smith [30] is younger than me but what he’s achieving is phenomenal. He’s redefining what is possible as a batsman. The MCC manual talks about side-on movement but Smith stands in a much more open way and still plays incredibly well.

“He is a freak in terms of his ability to play the kind of unorthodox shot, on all-fours, he used to get to his 50 on the first day [last week]. His God-given talent, apart from his work ethic and hand-eye co-ordination, is extraordinary. He nicks the ball far less than any other player ever – maybe with the exception of Don Bradman. Smith just doesn’t miss a ball on his pads.”

In his book, Cook returns to the 2017 Ashes, which Australia won, when he and England’s players shared a few beers with Smith’s team. Cook remembers that, “David Warner, a couple of beers into his celebration, mentioned that he used substances attached to the strapping on his hand to accelerate the deterioration of the ball during a first-class match. I looked at Steve Smith who shot a glance that said, ‘Ooh, you shouldn’t have said that.”

Did the Australians use sandpaper to tamper with the ball before they were caught doing so in Cape Town in March 2018? “Stuart Broad sums it up pretty well and says they got the ball to reverse swing in that Ashes. Why change what you’ve been doing? Why suddenly use sandpaper? People know what was going on. But it’s been the best thing for Australian cricket because they realised it wasn’t acceptable. The win-at-all-costs culture they created isn’t what the Australian public needed or wanted. They’d gone too far.”

Australia have retained the Ashes but, at Headingley, Ben Stokes hit a monumental 135 not out as England passed a target of 358 – after being bowled out for 67 in the first innings. Cook describes Stokes as one of the cricketers to whom he is closest. He also says Stokes is the best team player he has known in putting his desire for England’s success above personal milestones.

“Cricket is such a stats-based game for each player but no-one knows Tiger Woods’s average round. They just know Woods has won 15 majors. As cricketers we’re judged on the average we have from being a 21-year-old who’s just come into international cricket to the day you retire. What should matter is the impact you have on games. Stokesy will always have an average around 35, and 30 with the ball, but that’s misleading. He wins massive games of cricket.”

Cook believes that Stokes has been transformed by the assault charges brought against him in a Bristol court after a violent altercation in 2017. He was cleared eventually and Stokes has been making up for it ever since. “Bristol had a major impact on him because he realised what he could have lost. I feel I’ve said a couple of things to him at certain times, or had his back on certain things, that have helped him.

“When he came in under my captaincy he was rough around the edges. But in his second Test he played an unbelievable innings in Perth when there was such a crack in the pitch. I’m mentally fairly decent but it was unnerving and I went out first ball. Ben batted incredibly [scoring 120]. The fact he played like that, at 22, makes him the maverick he is. I did guide [Stokes] a little and had that affinity with him. But the last thing I want is to take any credit for what he’s done. I think the Bristol case made him realise that not many people can bat, bowl and field like he can – and he had to make the most of his talents.”

Cook was in the commentary box, on Test Match Special, when Stokes and Jack Leach put on 76 for the last wicket to seal that Headingley victory. “I was actually on air,” Cook says of the moment Stokes hit the winning four. “There are some great clips on the internet of me and Glenn McGrath. I didn’t realise it but Glenn threw down his headset – I wish I’d seen that. But you’re engrossed in the game, living and breathing it.”

He is still so close to the England team that, after the match, he joined them in the dressing room. “I was very conscious not to overstay my welcome. But I wanted to see Ben and congratulate him personally. I know life moves on and you are replaceable but I was lucky enough to have a beer with the guys.”

Was there bedlam in the dressing room? “It was more shock. Normally with a Test win the music’s blaring but we watched the highlights round the tiniest screen. Everyone was like: ‘Oh my God, what’s just happened?’”

Neither Australia nor England are great teams, despite the presence of Smith, Stokes and some very fine fast bowlers, but they have produced a riveting series. “Test cricket is changing,” Cook says. “That’s obviously down to the influence of T20 and the fact that batters now have to master three formats. I had to master one. There are times when the one-day game is so formulaic. Every time you open the batting you’ve got to score at least eight runs an over. In Test cricket that doesn’t happen. There are times you’ve got to suck it up and bat for a draw.”

Have the Ashes given Cook renewed hope that Test cricket will continue to thrive? “[Last] week we had two Tests. Old Trafford and West Indies against India who are the biggest powerhouse. They were lucky if they had 25 spectators. Manchester was sold out every day. But that’s not the reality of Test cricket away from England. Something needs to be done.”

What is Cook’s solution? “Franchise cricket is here to stay because of the money. But the best way of protecting Test cricket is to have less of it. Make it more of a marquee event. Not a case of ‘Oh, we’re playing an Ashes again in 14 months.’ If we play less Test cricket it becomes more special. And then the best players don’t have to choose between franchise and Test cricket.”

How has Cook replaced the intensity of his consuming career? “It’s more a loss of a goal. All I ever wanted to do was play cricket for England and be successful. Now it’s over, there has been a transition and playing for Essex has helped. It’s not like you’re falling off a cliff. But I haven’t missed Test cricket because I was ready to go. Of course there have been moments I’ve thought: ‘Oh God, I’ll never do that again.’ But, ultimately, I was very satisfied with my career – which makes it easier to step away.”