Alistair Cook

England captain Alastair Cook was born on Christmas Day 1984 in Gloucester.  After winning a musical scholarship to Bedford School he discovered cricket, and by the time he had left, in 2003, he was a mainstay in the school side.

Cook joined the Essex academy aged 15 and was given his debut against Nottinghamshire in 2003, at the age of 18. He soon established himself as the club's opening batter. After considerably impressing for his county, the youngster was called up to the England squad. As a result of becoming an England regular, Cook's Essex appearances reduced considerably.

At the age of 21, Cook made his maiden test appearance in the 2006 tour of India. Cook hit a promising 60 in his first ever innings and then followed that up with a 104 second inning total, making him just the 16th Englishman to score a century on his debut. Cook then competed in his first home test in England's 1-1 draw with Sri Lanka. Cook also featured against Pakistan, scoring 403 runs in the series, making him second only to Andrew Strauss in the England batting department. 

Cook got his first taste of Ashes cricket in 2006-2007, but sadly for him he made his Ashes bow in the 5-0 Australian whitewash. He ended his maiden year with over 1,000 runs, making him just the second cricketer to do this.

In 2007, Cook played against West Indies, India, and Sri Lanka and in 2008-2009 he faced New Zealand both home and away, as well as South Africa, India and the West Indies home and away.

2009 saw the Australians return to England to contest the Ashes and while it has to be said that Cook's batting was sketchy, it didn't matter as England prevailed 2-1. When England returned to Australia for the 2010-2011 series, questions were being asked about Cook's ability and form. An unperturbed Cook went on to dominate the series, scoring 766 runs at an average of 127.66, helping England to a 3-1 victory and back-to-back Ashes successes.

In 2011, Cook was made captain of England's One Day side and in August 2012 was handed the Test Squad captaincy. In Cook's first five tests as captain he hit five hundreds, which is a record. In late 2012, Cook captained England to their first victory on Indian soil since the 1984-1985 series. On the 25th August 2013, he retained the Ashes in a 3-0 triumph.

Cook has also bowled one over for England.

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