Cook, Best After Bradman

First topic message reminder :

Now, I think Cook is a great, dogged player but best after Bradman? McCullum is playing the public relation card, isn't he?

cook is very fit, physically and mentally.

And he seems to be getting better all the time. He is learning new shots..!!

Chances are he could get to 40 100's i feel

No worries Azaar, apologies on my part then.

I guess it depends how you look at it. I dont think any of the younger guys have distinguished themselves. They all averaging 48-52. Of course, Lara averaged 51, but he has a 300, a 400, and a FC 500!! To paraphrase Animal Farm.
"All averages of 50+ are created numerically equal, but some are more equal than others"

Azzy Mahmood wrote:I think we can all agree that Alastair Cook is a better batsman, fielder and captain than David Gower. As fine a player as he was.

I think Azzy it would be harsh to compare player of two different eras. Though we now rate Cook ahead of Gower but see the level of bowling both the batsman have faced. At the time of Gower WI had the greatest of the fast bowling attack and We can't overlook the then Aussies and NZ fast bowling where he proved himself brilliantly. His average against Aussies in ashes is above 45 with more than 400 runs in 6 out of the 7 he played. This also includes the 732 runs in the 9 innings of the Ashes 1985 where all these runs are scored at an average of 81. He played against NZ only once in his career in 1978 and had a decent avg of 57 in that series.
If we look at cook era cricket has become a more batsman game than a bowlers one. So comparison is not a bit fair.

Gower was a brilliant fielder, one of the best in the world at cover back in the day when a lot of shots got played in that direction. When he did get injured though he could only throw like a girl, but that was fairly late in his career I think.
I really struggle to believe that Cook would average anything higher than in the 30's against the Windies side that Gower had to play against.
Mind you Boycott averaged nearly 46 against WI in his career (though that was 66-81 so not all the time against the very best attacks) and only 37 against New Zealand in 15 matches and you would have thought that would have been a run fest for him.
So you never can tell really.