Alastair cook cricketer cricinfo
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Alastair Cook trumpeted as England's next cricketing knight
Arise, Sir Alastair? He was England's hero in whites for more than a decade, a record-breaking run-scorer and distinguished former captain, but Alastair Cook could be in line for even higher honours after being proposed for an early knighthood.
Cook retired from England duty in September, having amassed 12,472 Test runs and 33 hundreds - both records for England. In his final Test, against India at The Oval, he signed off with innings of 71 and 147 amid widespread acclaim for his impact on the game.
Now the wheels have been set in motion that could one day see him knighted. Last month, a member of the House of Lords tabled a parliamentary question, "to ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to recomending Alastair Cook for knighthood".
Lord Tyrie has also written to the authorities in charge of the honours list, according to a report in the Metro newspaper. "It is not just that Alastair C
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The marginalisation of Alastair Cook, England's anonymous titan
The career of England's leading run-scorer epitomises an era in which English cricket has been divorced from popular culture, and the ECB are now paying the price
Alastair Cook celebrates reaching his hundred • Getty Images
Alastair Cook entered the assembly hall at Rusthall Primary School through a guard of honour of plastic bats. He watched, on the school projector, a brief re-run of his winter's undoubted highlight, that Ashes-best 244 not out at Melbourne. And then, after a lively Kwik cricket session in the playground, he was presented with a cake to commemorate his achievement in passing 12,000 Test runs.
It all added up to a nice, low-key but upbeat, opportunity for England's former captain and record Test run-scorer to re-enter the limelight of another English cricket season.
But he did so against a backdrop of clanking and whirring from the machine of w
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Alastair Cook announces retirement from professional cricket
Alastair Cook, England's leading Test run-scorer and one of the foremost batters of his generation, has announced his retirement from the professional game.
Speculation had swirled around the final rounds of this season's LV= Insurance County Championship that Cook, 38, could be set to call time on his playing career. Essex played down the reports, with the club still in contention for the Division One title, saying Cook would sit down to discuss his future at the end of the season - but the former England captain has now confirmed his decision.
"Today I am announcing my retirement and the end of my career as a professional cricketer," Cook said in a statement on the Essex website.
"It is not easy to say goodbye. For more than two decades, cricket has been so much more than my job. It has allowed me to experience places inom never dreamed I would go, be part of teams that have achieved things inom would never have thought po