Common sense from Alastair Cook

I think out of all the cricketers I never think about, Alastair Cook would be up there near the top of the list. There or thereabouts would have to be Chris Rogers from Australia and, possibly, Ian O'Brien from NZ.

For the record, i think Alastair is a really good cricketer, and i'm sure he'll go on to have a very successful career in this, the world's greatest "caper" - that's how i'm seeing it. But unfortunatley for him, he's not been hit with one ounce of charisma or personality? Imagine Andrew Strauss at a younger age, and you can see what i'm talking about.

As many of you may know, Alastair has a regular column in the Metro, where he talks about the "comings and goings" inside the England camp. Rarely do I ever get past the first paragraph on my train journey into work because of the boredom, but I was pleasantly surprised by his prose this thursday past. It was like reading Bill Bryson let me tell you....what a turn of phrase this boy had.

So onto the specifics of the article. Here's what Alastair had to say on the debacle in Jamaica, when talking about his interview with "intimidating" journalists:

"One thing i wanted to convey, and which got lost in the post-mortem (WJ: Wouldn't it have been great to be a fly on the wall in that meeting?), was the fact we are sorry. Sorry to have let everyone down. Thousands of fans, in these uncertain economic times, have spent their hard-earned money to come out here to the West Indies to follow us."

Let's look at this in more detail then shall we?

I like the fact that being "sorry" managed to get lost in the post-mortem. Wickman Junior imagines there was perhaps a team meeting whereby the players and coaching staff talked about what went wrong. Everyone had agreed that the top order needed to show more resolve, responsibily, perhaps even character to make sure this didn't happen again.

Then the question would have gone out to the group: "was there anything else boys? Any others reasons for stuffing up? / things we want to talk about?" "Nah...that'll do" (the group would have said), before Alastair chirped up, saying: "shouldn't we be sorry lads?"

Having already left the room at this point, perhaps they couldn't hear the point he was trying to make? One of the divisions in the England camp that you won't read about is the "Alastair Cook camp" - the team's equivalent of Shannon Matthews. You get the impression that anything he says is going to be ignored at all costs...despite being tied to a leash. Hence, i suppose this was why "sorry" was omitted from the post mortem.

Also, I love the fact that Alastair recognises how the game of cricket fits in with the wider economic world? Describing the current malaise as "uncertain economic times" is so refreshing to hear from a professional sportsperson, and really shows he's on the ball. Perhaps when the FTSE plummets again, a rogue reporter should cross live to Alastair Cook to comment? He might say something like: "what's happened today in London should not come as a surprise to any of us. In these uncertain economic times, we need to prepare.....blah blah blah"

Attached above is a picture of Alastair Cook's twin brother, or so i'm told. Never question the veracity of the online world and things it throws up....so let's take it as FACT.

Wickman Junior