Alastair Cook

Some Lesser Known Facts About Alastair Cook

• Does Alastair Cook smoke: Not Known

• Does Alastair Cook drink alcohol: Yes

  

• As a child, Cook was obsessed with music; he was a choirboy at the prestigious St. Paul’s Cathedral boarding school in London. Cook can also play a variety of musical instruments like Clarinet, Saxophone, Piano, etc.

  

• Cook’s musical flair helped him earn a scholarship to Bedford School, an independent school for boys in the county town of Bedford, where he was immediately appointed as the President of its Musical Society. However, music was soon eclipsed when the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) came to play against the Bedford XI. The visitors were a man short and drafted the 14-year-old Cook to play against his own school. Cook went on to score a century in this match.

  

• Over the next four years, Cook hit 17 centuries and 2 double tons, and scored 4,396 runs at an average of 87.90, this time for his own school.

• Cook represented England at the ICC U-19 World Cup in 2004. Not only did he score two centuries during the tournament, but also helped his team to a spot in the semi-finals.

• At the U-19 platform, Cook was a regular bowler. In a U-19 Test against South Africa in 2003, he dismissed future Proteas stars JP Duminy and AB de Villiers; Duminy was dismissed at 116, while AB de Villiers got out on 99.

• On his Test debut against India at Nagpur Cricket Stadium in 2006, Cook scored 60 in the first innings and 104 in the second innings to become the fifth English player to score a century and a fifty on his Test debut. This achievement also made him the youngest Englishman, at the age of 21, to reach a Test hundred in 67 years.

• Cook also holds the record of being the youngest Englishman to score 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 and 6,000 Test runs.

• Captain Cook batted 836 minutes to score 263 in the first innings of a match against Pakistan during England’s tour of UAE in 2015. This performance marked the third longest innings of all time.

• He loves sweets and once admitted to stealing penny sweets from the corner shop when he was younger.

• Alastair Cook is a really good ‘Cook,’ according to his team-mates. Co-incidentally, apart from being a cricketer and a musician, Cook is also a great chef (cook). Hence his nickname-“Chef“.

• He is too afraid of snakes and often complains of having a recurring nightmare about being eaten by them.

• A Philanthropist by heart, Cook has joined hands with many charitable organizations. He once posed nude alongside fellow cricketers James Anderson and Stuart Broad to help raise awareness for testicular cancer on behalf of the Everyman Campaign.