Has Cook Been To The Well Too Many Times?

Has Cook Been To The Well Too Many Times?

- Peter Hayter

As if Aussie cricket fans have not already had more than enough fun peering at grainy videos of England cricketers, they would have loved every one of the 48 seconds of film which recently found its way onto the official website of Cricket Australia.

Indeed, so successfully did it pinpoint the battles Alastair Cook is facing following his pair of failures in the first Test in Brisbane that you could have been forgiven for thinking the powers that-be within Australian cricket actually sanctioned the screening of his ‘secret’ net session prior to the second Test in Adelaide. Which, of course, they did.

Tucked away at the foot of the relevant web page on Cricket.com.au is the obligatory disclaimer, stating categorically: “The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Cricket Australia.”

Of course not, though they obviously place enough trust in the opinions and judgment of the excellent Andrew Ramsey, who they inform us, “previously wrote for The Guardian, The Australian, The Times, Telegraph, The Hindu and Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack”, to have appointed him their senior writer. And, in any case, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

But the fact of the matter, as was shown in the hilarious CA monitored post-Gabba revelations of Jonny Bairstow’s ‘headbuttgate’, is that anything that might cause even more discomfort and embarrassment to the Poms than Ben Stokes, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Steve Smith have already managed is all right by them.

And sadly, as far as England’s highest Test run-scorer is concerned, it appears they may be on another winner.

The manner of Cook’s dismissals in Brisbane was troubling enough.