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Full name Simon James Cook
Born January 15, 1977, Oxford
Current age 31 years 176 days
Major teams Kent,Middlesex
Nickname Chef
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium
Height
6 ft 4 in
Education Matthew Arnold School
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
First-class
104
133
18
1887
93*
16.40
0
5
31
0
List A
158
99
31
1149
67*
16.89
0
2
25
0
Twenty20
36
13
6
106
25*
15.14
83
127.71
0
0
4
3
7
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
First-class
104
15860
8347
259
8/63
32.22
3.15
61.2
9
0
List A
158
7134
5636
202
6/37
6/37
27.90
4.74
35.3
4
2
0
Twenty20
36
36
763
968
47
3/14
3/14
20.59
7.61
16.2
0
0
0
Career statistics
First-class debut
1999
Last First-class
Kent v New Zealanders at Canterbury, Apr 28-30, 2008 scorecard
List A debut
1997
Last List A
Kent v Somerset at Beckenham, Jun 4-5, 2008 scorecard
Twenty20 debut
Surrey v Middlesex at The Oval, Jun 13, 2003 scorecard
Last Twenty20
Kent v Surrey at Canterbury, Jun 25, 2008 scorecard
Profile
Standing at 6ft 4ins, Simon Cook is a lively fast-medium bowler. He jumped from taking the new ball for Cumnor - a league side in Oxfordshire - in 1996 to taking the new ball with Angus Fraser for Middlesex against Ireland in the Benson & Hedges Cup a year later. The considerable promotion was accidental: he admits Middlesex scouts "weren't watching me, they were looking at Andy Strauss, who they also signed". The pair were playing together in a representative U-19s match against Warwickshire
At Middlesex, shin splints and a stress fracture delayed Cook's progress from an effective one-day bowler to Championship bowler. In 2000 injury and form restricted him to only seven first-class appearances. When Fraser, his mentor, left the club two years later for a career in journalism, he filled the containing role and recorded his best, 8 for 63, at Northampton on a good batting track and finished just short of 50 first-class wickets. In 2004 he equalled Adam Hollioake's National League record of 39 wickets in a season, and was also Middlesex's leading first-class wicket-taker. However, in Cook's eight years there, they won no titles, and at the end of 2004, he signed a two-year contract with Kent.
Debashish Biswas (September 2006)
