Alastair Cook admitted Tuesday that recent results had "not been good enough" but insisted there was no question of him resigning the England captaincy if things went badly against India
Alastair Cook. Pic/AFP
Nottingham: Alastair Cook admitted Tuesday that recent results had "not been good enough" but insisted there was no question of him resigning the England captaincy if things went badly against India.
Alastair Cook. Pic/AFP
England haven't won in eight Tests, a sequence stretching back to their 74-run victory against Australia at Chester-le-Street in last August's home Ashes series.
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Meanwhile it is more than a year since opening batsman Cook scored the last of his England record 25 Test hundreds.
And with England recently going down 1-0 at home to Sri Lanka after a 100-run defeat in the second Test at Headingley, Cook's tactics have come in for severe criticism.
Cook, however, retains the support of the England hierarchy.
Indeed former coach Andy Flower, still involved in the England and Wales Cricket Board set-up, said last weekend: "He is an outstanding cricketer and we, the English public, should be proud of having Alastair Cook as one of our own, leading the Test side.
"This is a young man, a 29-year-old man, who has done some extraordinary things for his country...and he's got so much more left to give."
Cook said Tuesday he was thick-skinned enough to cope with the flak that had come his way as he surveyed England's prospects ahead of the first of a five-Test series against India starting at Nottingham's Trent Bridge ground on Wednesday.
"I think you have to be determined and stick to your guns. We all know you are judged on results and results have not been good enough.
"If we turn it round and win games of cricket things will be different."
Huge honour
Asked if he could survive as captain were England to lose the series with India -- who've only enjoyed three Test campaign victories on English soil in their history, Cook said: "I am not in charge of anything like that. I concentrate on doing the job which I've been asked to do.
"I'm incredibly proud to be England captain. I have thrown everything into it and continue to. Until that day the selectors decide I'm not the right man for the job, I will continue to.
"It is a huge honour to do this and I can go to sleep knowing that I've thrown everything I've got into it."
The Essex left-hander added: "I just need to go back to scoring runs.
"There is always pressure, isn't there? It doesn't matter what stage of your career you are in, you always have it.
"That's the beauty of the job -- to see whether you can handle it or not."
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is perhaps under more pressure than any other skipper of a leading Test nation, given he is responsible for carrying the hopes of millions of fans in the cricket-crazy nation.
"You know that, when you or the team starts doing well then they (the media) don't ask these questions to the individual or to the coaches," Dhoni, also speaking at Trent Bridge, said Tuesday.
"So it's a tough phase each and every cricketer has to face.
"But I feel it will only improve him (Cook) as a person and a player."
With five Tests packed into a congested schedule of six weeks, Cook said it was vital England hit the ground running.
"It is very important. We haven't won a Test match for a while now, and we'd love to get back to those winning ways."
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