What a player. Up there in Stats with Sachin Tendulkar. Youngest ever player to 8000 runs It'll not be long before he goes from Alastair Cook MBE to the Great Alastair Cook MBE or better.
He's good but he's not an all time great. The wickets are a lot easier to score runs on these days. I'd love to have seen him play back in the days of Boycott, Gooch, Gower and Botham.
Here we go, They had weeks and week of prep time which he doesn't plus a lot of other things. They probably didn't have to talk about your birthday 20 minutes before batting which he does. Even Lord Gower wouldn't say hes better than Cook so I'm not sure why you are.
Lord Gower is far too modest to say anything so crass but in my opinion he was a better batsman than Cooke. He would have scored runs for fun on the wickets they play on today (as would Gooch and Boycott). You're the one that keeps starting these threads about how great today's players are and how **** the players from years gone by are.
He's a very good modern day batsmen. As the commentators have said he's got there so quickly as England have played so many test matches consistently over the last 7 years. No point comparing batsmen of today with yesteryear as it's absolutely no comparison. The game favours the batsmen. Stupid bats which allow you to hit sixes with a mishit, shorter boundaries, better protection, limited bouncers. All those batsmen were real heroes. That was when cricket was at its absolute best. Good to see England at least make a fight of one test match though. Hope it continues. Save some of the utter embarrassment.
Fair play cook you still have to score the runs. Its hard to compare players from different era's (different classes of opponents and the game evolve's). It's generally easier for batter's these days as the tracks are well maintained BUT on the flip side there's more technology available for teams to build a game plan of how to take advantage of a batsman's weaknesses. Well Played Alastair Cook im sure you will become a world great and something for this country to be proud of!!!
'''No point comparing batsmen of today with yesteryear as it's absolutely no comparison. The game favours the batsmen. Stupid bats which allow you to hit sixes with a mishit, shorter boundaries, better protection, limited bouncers. All those batsmen were real heroes. That was when cricket was at its absolute best. '' Thats about the bats is almost as silly as saying it's easier now. Andrew Strauss did a comparison in the summer using the new bats and the old bats. Using ig good relations with cricket bat manufacturers Gray-Nicolls he was able to get bats into show the tv audience and they even did him some bats that were exactly the same so he could use them. He said he didn't hit the ball any further with the new bats out of the middle although they went off the edges more which isn't always great for a opener is it. Said he was all mental with a bat. They didn't weigh anymore either. I notice you never post about the pressure of the modern day player espcially batsman with all the stuff they have to do like chatting about there birthday just before batting....
Batting is all about balance at the crease and timing the ball, having played the game you realise once you have a bat your comfortable with (All about balance) not the size or design of the bat, you will score runs. Old Bats vs New Bats - A load of crap (The likes of Slazenger etc.. try justifying there obscene price increase in recent years by advertising a better product). More is not more, different grades of willow will effect the durability of a bat but the thicker the bat the better it is......load of ****! I was lucky enough to have a ex- Indian Test batter play at my club and his bats were no different from the one's we were using... the difference being his talent and timing of the ball was exceptional!
Yep. The old players batting at 2RPO might have made them not get out as much also Mario might want to have a look at the ICC test rankings. Cook Career best.874 Boycott. 764 KP. 909 Bell. 822 Gower. 822 Gooch 873.
The stats don't tell the whole story so you can't compare like for like. As I, and many others, keep saying the old wickets used to favour the bowlers and made it more difficult to score runs. Also there weren't the test matches against the weaker teams to rack up your run rate. Nobody is saying that the modern batsmen are **** just that they can't be compared to players from generations gone.
Cooke could not lace gowers boots Gower could play shots all around the wicket Cooke has a very limited technique Bowl at his weakness and hes gone
Better in technique and application The current breed of test batsmen wojld not have sufvived in the 70s and eighties Helmets ?
Just a shame his captaincy isnt up to scratch, he wont be the captain soon. Some of his decisions are woeful!!!!!!!
Joel Garner Malcom Marshall Andy Roberts Curtley Ambrose Coutney Walsh Dennis Lillee Terry Alderman Merv Hughes Waqar Younis Imran Khan Would like to see a "sky sports era" batsman face one of those at full pelt.
here we go again another all time great because he was alive in HT's cricketing lifetime. He's a good batsman no doubt about that but never had to face anything like the sustained pace batteries l that the others mentioned had to.