Farming keeps me calm, says England cricket captain Alastair Cook
ENGLAND cricket captain Alastair Cook has revealed how a farmer’s life has helped his batting average.
Cook will appear on BBC One’s Countryfile tonight at 6.45pm
Cook and his wife Alice live on a farm near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire and the cricketer says the rural chores help keep him calm.
In a revealing portrait for BBC One’s Countryfile tonight at 6.45pm, they take viewers through their daily routine and show their two-year-old daughter Elsie getting stuck in at lambing time.
Alice talks about how a run of poor form for her husband ended after he woke up at 4.30am to “tag lambs”.
Alastair Cook on Countryfile
The batsman then went on to score 294 against India at Edgbaston in 2011.
Alastair says: “Farming helps my cricket in that I’m not lying on the sofa thinking ‘Ooh, what’s my technique doing?”
Alice agrees. “Cooky was going through a lean patch once, but the farm was brilliant. He came and got completely stuck in, tagging sheep, and he was up at 4.30am loading the lorry.
Waking up at 4.30am to 'tag lambs' improved Cook's batting game
After some time on the farm, he went on to score 294 against India
“He then went on to score 290, which I think my dad and all the local farmers took a huge amount of credit for.
“They have never let him live it down. Whenever he has a bit of a rough time all he gets is ‘Get on the farm. You’ll be all right, forget batting practice’.”
Cook said: “There are so many good things about the farming. There’s the community, which I love, and obviously it is challenging. Cricket has been my life for so long. It’s given me so much that I’d love to stay involved. Ideally I’d like to combine cricket and farming.”