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Departing England cricket captain Alastair Cook says ECB let him down over Kevin Pietersen affair

In the end for Alastair Cook it came back to Kevin Pietersen. He said he had no regrets about giving up the England Test captaincy, a job he did longer than anyone else, but admitted he wished the sacking of Pietersen on his watch had been handled better and felt he had been hung out to dry by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Speaking at Lord's, in the same hospitality box where team director Andrew Strauss had paid tribute to him 24 hours earlier, Cook reflected on his four years as England captain and revealed he was still hurt by the Pietersen affair.

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"It was obviously a big part of my captaincy. I felt like it wasn't handled particularly well by the ECB. I know I was the lightning rod for it, every person thought it was my decision. I felt I bore the brunt of that, unfairly in my opinion.

"As much power as you get as England captain, you don't have the ultimate decision on that sort of thing," he told Nasser Hussain in an interview for Sky.

"Yes, I was part of the decision making, as six or seven other people were. I didn't actually have that final trigger. I felt a little bit let down by the ECB by that one period where they kind of let me hang out to dry a little bit.

"But that's all gone now. It's part and parcel of the challenge of being captain. I can't say now I have any regrets. I've tried, whether I got it right or wrong, to do the best for English cricket at that time."

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But while Cook expressed regret over the fallout surrounding the decision to terminate Pietersen's career in 2014, he said in his press conference that he believed it was the right call. This was not an olive branch to his former team-mate.

"The decision was what we thought was the best for English cricket. The fallout was not very good for English cricket. It was not great to see and be part of it when it was all over the front and back pages and social media like it was.

"But since Straussy has come on board and made the final decision again [ending Pietersen's England career in 2015] it did settle down."

Will Pietersen define Cook's captaincy? Possibly. His choice of highlights from his captaincy were interesting in that regard, particularly given the magnificent series win in India in 2012, an achievement brought into sharp focus by the hammering before Christmas.

First, he picked 2014 at Southampton when, scrabbling around for form and close to resigning having just been beaten by India at Lord's, adding to the flak he was facing for the Pietersen call, he received a standing ovation when he reached lunch not out on the first day. "That was a special moment for me that kept me in the job," he said.

Second, winning the Ashes the following summer, months after Strauss had sacked Pietersen for good, Cook ranked as "the biggest high as no one gave us a chance to beat Australia and to win that series was just incredible".

Cook admitted it was an "easy decision" to resign the captaincy this week and his mind was made up when he left Chennai in December. "It was sad, it's a job you need 100 per cent commitment to do; to drive the team forward at all times. But looking in the mirror at the end of India, I felt I couldn't do that."

England lost eight Tests in 2016, their worst year since 1993, although they did play a whopping 17 matches, and the team were going stale, for which Cook accepted responsibility.

"One hundred per cent. That's part of being captain. You are responsible. With the coaches, It's not a one-man thing but ultimately the captain is part of that. The dressing room has been fantastic, the support of the players has been brilliant, it's just I think that hearing a new voice could help.

"The last year, we played some good cricket but we lost eight games. We kind of stagnated if we are being brutally honest as a team. There is a lot of work that needed to be done, I felt, and I just didn't have the energy to do that."

Now he contemplates life as simply Cook the batsman. He refused to reveal his targets but hoped he was "still here in four or five years' time as an England player".

He will pick up a bat again on March 1 when Essex begin pre-season training, and has until July, when Test cricket starts again for England, to acclimatise to his new life. "It's not an obituary, I still will be around," were his final words.

The Telegraph, London

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