A biography for Alastair Cookhasn’t been written yet.
“Learning on the job as England captain is hard.”
“The battle between bat and ball is a one-on-one thing. I love that stuff, but you play it in a team.”
“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.”
“It hurts like hell when you come into a contest and you end up being second best.”
“I am hugely honoured and proud to be receiving a knighthood.”
“You're only England captain for a very short space of time.”
“I think a lot when I'm on my own - and much of it is about cricket.”
“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.”
“I suppose you could say I was always having to defend my style of captaincy. I did get a lot of criticism - some of it justified, other times as part of a tactic.”
“Nobody walks over me, ever, and no-one will walk over me, ever.”
“Self-belief is certainly an issue you need to make sure you look after when you've lost heavily in two games.”
“When you give up something as big as playing for England there are going to be moments when you miss it.”
“It is frustrating when you go all that way, you train, and you just don't turn up. It does happen. If you play 100-odd Test matches, there's going to be little periods when you don't score the runs.”
“There's nothing worse than going out without contributing.”
“The atmosphere and the first days of Test matches against Australia are incredible.”
“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.”
“My girlfriend comes from a farming background and I spend a lot of time at her farm doing farming stuff. When you're pulling lambs out, or weighing them or worming them or doing whatever you do to sheep you're not thinking about Brett Lee.”
“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.”
“Just because you're made England captain, it doesn't mean that you suddenly know everything about captaincy.”
“My stubbornness helped me for the first half of my career; I had that real determination to do it my way - I know the best way. That helped me from a 14-year-old to 25 in getting me to where I got to.”