Defiant Cook vows to stay on
- adamhigginsuk
- Jul 21, 2014
- 3 min read
Under pressure: There have been widespread calls for Cook to step aside as England captain (Picture from Flickr.com)
A DEFIANT Alastair Cook insists he will not resign as England captain after a 95-run defeat by India at Lord's.
England, who have lost seven of their previous nine Tests under Cook, collapsed to 223 all out as they went 1-0 down in the series.
Previous skippers Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart believe the England and Wales Cricket Board to remove the captaincy from Cook.
But, as the much publicised debate continues to stir, the 29-year-old said: "To quit now, in the middle of the series, would be wrong."
The Essex opener, who took over from Andrew Strauss following his retirement in 2012, has overseen a downturn in form which began with a 5-0 whitewash down under against Australia last year.
Cook watched helplessly from the balcony of the pavilion as India were handed their first away Test win for more than three years after England batsmen repeatedly succumbed to Ishant Sharma's short balls.
"I'm not trying to prove anyone wrong. When I was made England captain, I told my wife I would give it my all," he added.
"If it's not to be, so be it. But I believe the team needs me to lead them through this tough time. I've been speaking to [head coach] Peter Moores over the last couple of days and, even in tough times, me and him still think we can turn this around.
"A captain is only good as the players you play with. You always think you could do different things in hindsight but I know when we've won games of cricket I've captained well.
"I don't think my captaincy was the reason we lost this game."
The defeat by India leaves coach Moores awaiting his first win after four Tests since being re-appointed in April, but he pledged his support to Cook.
"Alastair has had a tough ride, through the winter and now. The tougher it gets, the more he wants to get stuck in and build this team. He realises that's not an easy job," said Moores.
"We have to support people and it's great to see he's got the stomach for that fight.
"It's difficult to captain when you're not scoring runs. He's an outstanding player and individual and time will show that. He'll come back stronger."
England must not lose the next match, which starts next Sunday in Southampton, if they are to stand any chance of winning the series.
And an upbeat Cook admitted they are still capable of coming out on top in the five-match Investec series.
"The last week's been a hard week in terms of we lost a game of cricket. The good news in a five Test match series is you've got chance to bounce back and you get judged at the end of the series.
"The frustrating thing has been that we've been getting ourselves into situations, especially in the four Test matches where we've been ahead of the game by quite a long way and haven't been able to force that result.
"We must be doing a lot of things really well but at the crucial sessions, when we need to stamp our authority to get that win, we haven't been able to take.
"It's bubbling under but the longer it goes without a win it becomes harder and harder."
Last updated: 26 July 2014 20:53pm
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