Alastair Cook Quotes

If you have lost matches and not played to potential, criticism will come your way. Critics and media will say what they see and take you on. They will say things which you might not like to hear. But that’s professional sport.

You’re always under pressure, that’s what life is about. That is what playing international cricket or being a professional sportsman is.

Am I happiest on the farm or out in the middle? I am a cricketer, but the farm is a very special place and I absolutely love being in the countryside and getting away from the bubble. I like to think I’m a farmer, but there’s so much experience that goes into that.

If I was a second-team player, I probably would have gone to uni.

No matter how much cricket you have played you are always learning.

Just because you’re made England captain, it doesn’t mean that you suddenly know everything about captaincy.

The beauty of cricket is that there are so many different opinions as to the best way to do something and at times it is easier to see something when you’re not emotionally involved in the game and not responsible for the decision. You can go and have a cup of tea and look at it from a different point of view.

In the end, playing for England means very little if you don’t see the rest of the world around you. It is why I hate prima donnas and arrogance.

As cricketers we fail all the time. You score a hundred every now and again but you get out between nought 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.

I am hugely honoured and proud to be receiving a knighthood.

When I first came into the side as captain, I was accused of being quite conservative, quite negative, and just doing what Andrew Strauss did.

I have loved cricket my whole life, from playing in the garden as a child, and will never underestimate how special it is to pull on an England shirt.

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.

The biggest thing was probably a better understanding of the mental side of cricket and also the technical challenges I have in my game. Those two things happened in a very short space of time which changed me as a player.

All I ever wanted to do was play cricket for England and be successful.

Nobody walks over me, ever, and no-one will walk over me, ever.

I love cricket but I like being away from it as well.

I’m not some little soft touch. I will never take a backward step when batting, but I want to be respected as a nice guy, too.

Everyone has technical flaws – no matter how many runs you score.

When I’m away from cricket I switch off totally. Otherwise I would never be able to keep that same hunger.

It hurts like hell when you come into a contest and you end up being second best.

The most important opinions to me are those that belong to the guys in the changing room.

I don’t think you have to be this macho man all the time, just because you play sport.

It does take a lot of effort to perform, playing for England. It’s a huge amount of sacrifice to do and one day I might just wake up and say ‘you know what, I’m done with it.’

From a purely selfish, batting point of view, I couldn’t bat any better than the 2010-11 Ashes and then in India in 2012. That was as good as I could play.

I was never going to be the best player the world has ever seen but one thing I can be proud of is that I genuinely believe I have become the best player that I could have become.

The stats suggest that I’m not a dasher. It doesn’t mean I can’t play the shots, but when you find a method in four-day and Test cricket that works for you, you stick with it.

I think I come back to Essex and fit in pretty well but until you get there you don’t know.

It’s quite nice to switch off and not see anything to do with cricket.

The delight you feel in that split second you score your first hundred is so intense it can’t be repeated.

If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don’t want me to open the batting for England, it’s going to hurt.

I like being outside and I like hard work.

The musical training taught me to focus my mind, before playing in an orchestra taught me how to truly concentrate. If you miss your moment in an orchestra, there is no forgiving.

Sheep are never going to talk to you about cricket.

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.

When I watch Twenty20 cricket, there’s a different satisfaction. That hundred you get in six hours is a very satisfying feeling. A real triumph of skill. I don’t quite see that in the 20-over game – or the 100-ball game.

In a normal series you can have a couple of bad games and still win it.

You have to be very pragmatic, because you walk out to bat at the best time to bowl, with a brand new ball, against the best bowlers, who are fresh. And their job is to get you out, so when you fail there’s no point beating yourself up.

The India series wasn’t the only reason I retired. It was the culmination of 18 months where things had probably changed in my life.

No disrespect to county cricket but when you’re playing for England it is the ultimate, it is what has always driven me to push myself above and beyond.

You’re there to score runs. If you don’t do that over a period of time, people will look elsewhere. That hasn’t changed and that’ll never change, whether it’s myself or Jimmy Anderson, you’ve got to play to a certain level to be picked for England or even Essex.

Sport is an entertainment, in one sense. But it’s also a business.

It’s surreal to think that no one has played as many Test matches for England. I suppose it’s a credit to my longevity.

I think a lot when I’m on my own – and much of it is about cricket.

I do feel sorry for my younger brother, he used to field a lot.

The atmosphere and the first days of Test matches against Australia are incredible.

I miss being the focal point of the team – the guy everyone looks to for decisions. And guidance.

Learning on the job as England captain is hard.

I’ve got that ruthlessness inside me. All good captains have to be able to say things like that – with good man-management skills.

Test cricket gives ultimate satisfaction that I don’t think any other type of cricket does due to the nature and longevity of it.

Jonathan Agnew is a good person to learn off because he’s a brilliant broadcaster and the calmness and clarity with which he does things is a real skill.

The England captaincy job, after 50-odd games, has found out what kind of leader I am in terms of a person. It’s made me feel far more confident in terms of talking to a group in any situation. But it has taken me a long time to feel like I’ve been doing it naturally.

I always found one-day cricket a lot harder. I had to change my game.

There’s nothing worse than going out without contributing.

When I was made captain, one of my things was that whatever happens in those four years, you don’t want to make major changes just before a World Cup. We’d done it before, and it never worked.

I love the individual sport stuff but the experiences I’ve had with some great people over 12 or 15 years are what makes is special. That individual thing: me versus the bowler is great but you get that team feeling as well and that’s why it suits me so well.

Yes, there are absolutely moments when you’re running out of ideas, and you do genuinely feel sorry for the bowlers when you keep asking them to run in again on a flat wicket, when partnerships get away from you, especially at the tail, which is one of the big differences in the modern game.

When you are so close to something, it’s like a bar of soap – if someone says hold on to it, the harder you squeeze, the quicker it pops out of your hand.

I think it’s very hard to shake what people first think of you straightaway.

Franchise cricket is here to stay because of the money.

When you give up something as big as playing for England there are going to be moments when you miss it.

Parenthood changes things a lot.

I’m a country boy at heart. I love it when you’ve got your boots on and you’re standing in three inches of cow muck.

Everyone has technical issues – you have them until you die – but you have to be aware of them in a certain way.

Even when every Tom, Dick and Harry was calling for my head, I still felt I could get better at being captain.

If you play 100-odd Test matches, there’s going to be little periods when you don’t score runs, and I’ve always managed to turn it around.