Alastair Cook has admitted to suspicions among the England team of ball-tampering by Australia during the Ashes series.

Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are all serving lengthy bans after the latter was caught using sandpaper on the ball during the Cape Town Test against South Africa in a premeditated plan to obtain reverse swing.

Smith, the Australia captain, insisted it was a one-off. Asked if he believed that to be the case, Cook pointed to the third Ashes Test, where England were bowled out on a final day that had been delayed by rain, as one instance that was queried by his team-mates during their 4-0 defeat.

Steve Smith accepts Cricket Australia ban for ball tampering Read more

“We did think in Perth, when the outfield was wet after the rain, they managed to get the ball reversing. I didn’t see anything,” Cook said. “But there’s also that thing about whether reverse swing comes the quicker you bowl. Back in 2005 we had SimonJones and Freddie Flintoff, who were quicker than the Aussies – they managed to get reverse swing and the Aussies didn’t, so we have to be very careful there.

“We were curious in that series at certain moments but we couldn’t get the ball up to 90mph and they consistently could, so it’s easy sitting here. No one really understands [reverse swing].”

Cook will make his return for Essex at Hampshire on Friday in preparation for what will be a 13th summer of international cricket. But, though the sport’s landscape is shifting and a new selector is in place, his hunger is unabated. By his own admission the recent tour of New Zealand passed by Cook somewhat with a top score of 14 in four innings. And while he gorged on 244 not out during the Boxing Day Ashes Test, his winter overall was one of fleeting time spent at the crease.



Play Video 1:23 A brief history of ball-tampering – video

As a result the 33-year-old accepts that murmurs have again resurfaced as to his longevity but, while there is a new man in Ed Smith heading the selection process, Cook insists his own challenges remain the same as ever.

“My job never changes,” said Cook, speaking at an event to mark the return of Yorkshire Tea national cricket week (18-22 June). “It’s to score runs at the top of the order. If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don’t want me to open for England, it is going to hurt at this precise moment because I want to carry on.

“The hunger and desire is still there but no one has a God-given right to play for England. You have to score the runs to justify your place. Since I’ve come home I’ve started to look at my preparation. Have I got it right? Do I need to change things? Because that’s the right way to do it. I will never sit here and say I’ve cracked the game or will ever be perfect.”

With a paucity of alternatives it still seems a given that Cook will take the field when England host Pakistan at Lord’s next month and, should he do so, he would equal Allan Border’s record of 153 consecutive matches.

It would be the latest testament to the fitness and mental obduracy of England’s record run-scorer but in an era of Twenty20 – or even the ECB’s proposed new 100-ball tournament – the question remains as to where the next Test players will come from.

While he is the latest centrally-contracted player to offer predictable support to England’s new short-form competition – after Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad – and believes social media would have derided Twenty20 back in 2003 had it existed, Cook has been pondering the same thing.

He said: “Why would you put yourself through the stresses and strains of the five-day game when you can play three hours or two and a half hours of crash-bang-wallop? For a deep-down cricket fan, it’s very different from what we know. But that doesn’t mean it can’t go back the other way. There are a few guys now just playing white-ball cricket but there’s very few who can do that. For most people, to earn a living you’re going to have to play four-day cricket as well.”

Cook believes there is a decent talent pool from which Ed Smith can construct a Test side but he believes patience will be needed if they are to match the side who last beat Australia away in 2010-11.

“There were probably 14 cast-iron Test cricketers you could have picked from, with a lot of skill and experience. We are probably not at that stage. There are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said, “but I do think the talent is there.”