Simon Cook interview

By Jeremy Horne and David Slater
October 7 2002

During the match against Derbyshire at Lords this year, David and I took a few minutes to speak with Simon Cook about the season and being part of the Middlesex team.

Jeremy Horne: With the retirement of Angus Fraser, do you feel that there is more on the shoulders of the younger bowlers, like yourself?

Simon Cook: Yeah, obviously. Taking a guy like Gus out of the equation is a big loss for us. He’s a very containing bowler and he also got you the wickets aswell. He enabled you to control a game, so definitely the responsibility has moved more onto the shoulders of Aaron, myself, Chad and whoever else plays.

JH: At the beginning of the year, you were bowling very well. Were you happy with your performances early on, especially the 8 wickets you took in Northampton?

SC: Yeah, obviously. Getting wickets and doing well is nice to do, but it was good that we were winning aswell and it wasn’t just me performing well at the time. Ashley got 7-100 here against Nottinghamshire and there were other performances aswell. Now, as the wickets have dried out a bit, cat has come into the game a bit more, he’s got a couple of five-for’s and Weekesy aswell. Now we’ve got Ash back, it looks pretty good.

JH: How many more points do you think Middlesex would need to get promoted?

SC: To be honest, at this point, we don’t really look at it that way, we’re just looking to try and get every point that we can, so certainly in this game we’re looking, now, to get the 400 to get maximum batting points.

David Slater: Who do you think will be the overseas players next year?

SC: Abdur Razzaq has a 2 year contract, whether he chooses to take that up is up to him. We’ll then look to maybe sign, Ashley, I would think. He’s a very positive player- good for our side.

JH: Have you enjoyed bowling with him?

SC: He’s good to bowl with, you learn different things. Obviously he’s come from Australia and lines and lengths are slightly different over there and he’s had to adapt to our lines and lengths, but it’s good, you get a different perspective on things and a different way of working out how to bowl at certain batters.

DS: There was an article in the paper a while ago about Tuffers (in The Sun), saying that they were concerned about him and his attitude. Do you think he will stay on next year considering that Dalrymple is the only spin bowler of note that’s come through the ranks?

SC: I don’t see why not, why he shouldn’t stay on next year. He’s still one of the best bowlers in the country- of his art- so there’s no reason why he shouldn’t stay on.

JH: Who is the dressing room joker?

SC: Chad is very mischievous, I have to say. He’s always up to a lot of pranks. Ed’s always up there aswell.

JH: Any amusing stories?

SC: No, he just does little things like sticks tape on bits of furniture and writes things on it. Just silly, silly things like that.

JH: I can imagine him doing that, actually.

SC: Yeah, he just does very silly, silly pranks.

DS: You don’t know what hairstyle he’s got planned for next year?

SC: I believe he’s growing it long.

(Laughter all round)

I believe he’s growing it long and in a pony tail. We’ll wait and see.

Next Week: The Ashley Noffke interview.