Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook was born on the 25th December, 1984, in Gloucester and is an English cricketer who plays for Essex.
Cook is a left-handed batsman who was schooled at Bedford, where he started playing for the school's First XI at a young age. Each year he improved and in 2003 he scored 1287 runs for the school with an incredible average of 160.87.
Alastair Cook continued this form and took it into the U19 World Cup, in Bangladesh, where he captained England. He set an excellent example scoring two centuries on the way to the semi-finals.
In 2005, he became a regular in the Essex team, and proved himself by keeping up his brilliant batting form. Cook received a great deal of support and training from former Essex and England opener Graham Gooch. He finished with an average of 52.35, hitting 5 centuries and even reached 195 on one occasion, throughout a season in which he was reliable and consistent.
In August that year Alastair Cook was awarded Young Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writer's Club and was given Young Player of the Year by the Professional Cricketer's Association.
Later that year Alastair Cook was called up in place of the injured Michael Vaughan to face Pakistan but didn’t really figure.
In the 2006 season Cook was called up again for the injured England captain - this time to play against India in the first test and he played a major part.
He second top-scored in the first innings in Nagpur with 60 runs but in the second innings he became the 15th Englishman to hit a century on their test debut, a list headed by W.G.Grace.
Alastair Cook also did well in his first Test on home soil, making 89 at Lords in England's first Test against Sri Lanka in May 2006.
Cook scored another century in England's first Test against Pakistan in 2006 notching up 105 from 279 balls and then followed up with 127 in the first innings of the second Test.
In September 2006, Alastair Cook was named the Young Player of the Year for the second time in a row.
In November 2010, in the second innings of the first Test of the Ashes series, Alastair Cook hit 235 not out. It was the sixth best Ashes score by an Englishman.
Cook followed up with another century in the first innings of the second Ashes Test.
Up until he was out for 148, Cook had, in effect, been at the crease for 1052 minutes without being got out, because of his 235 not out at the Gabba together with the 148 at the Adelaide Oval.
In the fifth Ashes Test, Alastair Cook made 189 for a series aggregate of 766 runs. It was more runs than any England batsman in an Ashes series other than Wally Hammond, who scored 905 runs in the 1928/29 Ashes series.
On 5 May 2011, Alastair Cook was named England's captain for one-day internationals.
In June 2011, at just 26, Alastair Cook hit his 18th Test hundred, just four away from the record for England centuries.
In August 2011, Alastair Cook scored 294 in England's third Test against India. It was the sixth highest score by an Englishman in a Test.
Alastair Cook biography by Ben Rosenbaum
