Early Life and Education
Born in Gloucester, Alastair Cook is one of several players of mixed Anglo-Welsh heritage to play for England; his mother Stephanie is a teacher from Swansea, while his father Graham worked as a BT engineer as well as being a village cricketer. Cook is a keen musician. By the age of eight, he was learning the clarinet, and joined St Paul's Cathedral School in London, an independent school connected to the cathedral, as a chorister, where he boarded under a rigorous schedule of rehearsals, whilst also learning the clarinet. Cook later claimed the amount of focus and concentration required to keep practising while undergoing regular school hours helped with his batting. During his summer holidays, he would play cricket for Maldon Cricket Club, and by the age of 11 he was already playing for their adult side on the Third XI. He played sporadically for them over seven years, with an average of 168 in his final year at a club of which he is now an honorary life member.
Cook's musical flair led to him being granted a scholarship to Bedford School, an independent school in the county town of Bedford in Southern England when he was 13, also as a boarder. While being educated in Bedford, he also learned to play piano and saxophone. However, music was soon eclipsed when the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) came to play against the Bedford XI. The visiting side were a man short and drafted the 14-year-old new boy to play against his school; Cook scored a century. Over the next four years, he hit 17 centuries and two double-hundreds, to total 4,396 runs at an average of 87.90, captaining the cricket team in his final year under coach Jeremy 'Boris' Farrell, as well as being president of the music society. He also gained three A-Levels and nine GCSEs in his time there. In his final year at Bedford, in 2003, he scored 1,287 runs for the school, including two unbeaten double-hundreds, averaging 160.87 to take the school record. After his international success, Cook returned for an Old Boys match at Bedford in 2008, playing for the HM Ultimate XI.
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