| Series | Countries | Live Scores | Fixtures | Results | News |
Features
|
Photos | Video & Audio | Blogs | Statistics | Archive | Games | Mobile | ||||||||||||||||||||
New Zealand v England / News
|
New Zealand v England, 2nd Test, Wellington
Cook 'as good as anyone, barring Bradman' - McCullum
Andrew McGlashan in Wellington
March 13, 2013
|
|||
|
Related Links
Players/Officials:
Alastair Cook
| Brendon McCullum
Matches:
New Zealand v England at Wellington
Series/Tournaments:
England tour of New Zealand
Teams:
England
| New Zealand
|
|||
Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand captain, has heaped the ultimate praise on his opposite number Alastair Cook saying, on current form, he is as good as anyone who has played after Donald Bradman. Cook, who scored his 24th Test hundred in Dunedin, laughed off the shock comparison.
The century at University Oval was Cook's fourth hundred in five overseas Tests during the 2012-13 season, following a monumental series against India. But while his feats have rightly been acknowledged as putting him on the path to being labelled a great, it is rare to be uttered in the same sentence as Bradman who ended his career with the immortal average of 99.94. The next best on the list is Graeme Pollock (60.97), then George Headley (60.83). The highest average for a current player is Kumar Sangakkara's at 56.54.
McCullum, though, did not hold back his praise after being asked a question about how New Zealand planned to quell Cook's run-scoring feats. "He's obviously a genius batsman, his record is testament to that," McCullum said. "Where he is at in his career at the moment, he's as good as anyone who has played the game, probably barring Bradman."
Cook's response, after being taken aback by the comparison, was: "It's very nice of him to say that. I'm not quite sure where he's got that from." There was also plenty of mutual respect as Cook acknowledged McCullum's recent form. The New Zealand captain has scored five half-centuries in seven innings across all formats against England, including 74 off 59 balls in Dunedin. "You could talk about his genius batting. The way he hits the ball sometimes," Cook said.
Cook's current Test average of 49.60 places him 40th on the averages list, currently sat between Inzamam-ul-Haq and Denis Compton. Current contemporaries above him include AB de Villiers, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Younis Khan, Michael Clarke, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar. Purely as a comparison, if you take the point from after last year's World Twenty20 when Test cricket resumed, Cook's average of 76.44 places him third, behind Cheteshwar Pujara and Clarke among batsmen who have played at least five innings.
Cook, though, remains modest about his achievements. "You never quite feel on top of the game," he said. "What was pleasing for me was, after a few starts in the one-dayers here and in India, but [with] no match-winning score, I managed to get that bigger one in the first Test. I seemed to hit the ball okay." A modest oulook from a man compared to the immortal Bradman.
Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Andrew McGlashan
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
| ||||||
| Comments have now been closed for this article |
||||||
TopE-mail
Feedback
Print
Andrew McGlashan
Assistant Editor Andrew arrived at ESPNcricinfo via Manchester and Cape Town, after finding the assistant editor at a weak moment as he watched England's batting collapse in the Newlands Test. Andrew began his cricket writing as a freelance covering Lancashire during 2004 when they were relegated in the County Championship. In fact, they were top of the table when he began reporting on them but things went dramatically downhill. He likes to let people know that he is a supporter of county cricket, a fact his colleagues will testify to and bemoan in equal quantities.
Tour Results
Sponsored Links
ICICI Bank M2I. Register Now and Get A Gift Offer.
Safe & simple online money transfer. Apply Now!
Buy Wisden 2013 & get a FREE Playfair
Available now at Cricshop
Not a good comparison but Cook has all the chances to become a greatest ever in test matches. Cook may not have faced greats like Mcgrath, Akram, Waqar but in the last series against India, he neutralized the Indian spin bowling on sharp turning tracks which i think is not an easy task. And i think even Sachin, Lara and Kallis have not played all the cricket against great bowlers, being a subcontinent player Sachin's record is not so good in second innings when the ball turns and in the first innings on Indian pitches all you need is skill and concentration to neutralize even great bowlers. When Cook faces Steyn, it is either SA or England but in case of Indians half the times it is India and that is a big difference. Akram and Waqar were from Pakistan and the pitches in India and Pakistan are not so good for fast bowlers. So what the Cook has done till now is like a feat, if he continues like this for some 8 years he can break most of the records.
No players can be compared in cricket as the best. Even Sir Donal Bradman averaging 99+ cannot be said as being the best as no one knows how he would have fared against the likes of Ambrose, Wasin Akram, Waqar Unis, Glen McGrath, Bond and co. Also the likes of Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting if they played at the time of Bradman how would they have gone against those bowlers. Those days not so much effort was put into preparation, physics, ground and pitch maintenance etc. while today every part of cricket is being baby fed. The only comparison that can be made is between players of the same generations. Cook is not facing any of the above mentioned bowlers and the bowling stock in world cricket is rather poor at the moment. Cook is a good batsmen but best since Bradman is unrealistic. Swap Cook with Bradman and then see what the stats say. Swap Cook with Arthurton or Gooch then see. It is impossible to compare him to any players of yesteryears.
He's not being compared with Bradman. Just with anybody since Bradman. And don't forget that in the temporate climate of England it is harder to consistantly score big, with moving Duke balls, which make his acheivements to date even more impressive. And that's at the top of the order too.
Any1 can analyse any batsmen/bowler by seeing him but bowlers n batsmen r d best people to analyse their opposite nos..so only bowlers can say who is d best batsmen in d world n in d same way only batsmen can saywho is d best bowler in d world...
Posted by irishwolfhound on (March 14, 2013, 10:07 GMT)I know a lot of people really rate Cook, but I'm not one of them. I'm inclined to agree with those here who recognise that Tendulkar's taken on far better bowling attacks and found a way of putting together big scores. Cook regularly looks out is depth when faced with quality bowling, and gets an extraordinary number of umpiring errors going in his favour. Maybe he'll get there one day, but for now, he's just a regular batsman with inflated statistics.
Posted by cric_J on (March 14, 2013, 9:23 GMT)Cook is certainly one of the top 3 test batsmen of today along with Amla.These two are in a league of their own and are not flustered by anything.Though Amla is technically better and a more complete batsman.Clarke, I feel , for all his incredible efforts in 2012 is third.There is a certain surity and belief with Cook and Amla that they would be as consistent in the future ,that they could go on and on.Like it was with Dravid.But with Clarke I have my doubts whether he will be able to live up to his standards of last year.Also until last year nobody was very sure of Clarke's capability as a test batsman.And then suddenly after one great year he is being hailed as one of the greatest in Aussie cricket by some.Cook definitely has it in him to be one of the top 10 batsmen in the history of test cricket and in all probability he should be England's highest run scorer of all time if he goes with the same pace.But it is just a little too early to put him up there with some of the greatest.
Posted by cric_J on (March 14, 2013, 8:09 GMT)I am not going to get into the debate of who is the best test batsman of all time.Different people have different criteria for their assessment.In terms of winning matches for the team ,it would be Ponting,for average it would be Bradman,for consistently scoring mountains of runs it would be Sachin and Lara while for being technically sound it could be one of Dravid,Kallis or Gavaskar.Also I feel that it is not fair to call Bradman the best of all time as the rules of the game and the quality of the game was much different back then.And although Sachin has not been at his best for quite some time now,it is lame and rather ridiculous to compare him to peole like Sehwag and Azhar.AZHAR WHO ??Let us all face it that he is definitely one of the top 3(or make it 5 if needed) batsmen of all time.There is NO DENYING that.
Posted byNo one is comparing Cook with anyone, the statement simply says that he's the best SINCE Bradman, which honestly, is an unfair comparison in itself. Cook may be the best batsman to have come out of England in the last 50 years but to declare him the best in the world in the last 70 years is getting too carried away. It is grossly unfair to belittle players like Weekes, Sobers, Kallis and Dravid, who have faced most of the top 10 bowlers of all time and succeeded. But then again, if we talk about current form there is no one better than Amla and Cook (not even Clarke who has scored most of his runs on home/dead pitches) currently and dismissing them IN CURRENT FORM is akin to dismissing Bradman in his prime which is a completely agreeable statement.
Posted by Arrow011 on (March 14, 2013, 5:07 GMT)KP is way better than Cook even in England cricket team. Cook is like Rahul Dravid & KP is Sachin.
Posted by CricketChn82 on (March 14, 2013, 4:48 GMT)Had Lara/Sachin/Ponting/Kallis/Dravid/Inzamam/Sanga played the same way as cook is playing(Test Specialist) they would have been far ahead of Cook.Cook has not even been considered for 2 ODI world cups.Has played very few ODI matches in his 7 year career.But he can become a All time great for "England" if he continues with the same for next 6-7 years in Tests and Help england win a ODI world cup.No way next to Sir Don - Indian Fan