Alastair Cook might not be the captain of the England side anymore but he still continues to make headlines, both on the field and off it. With England not having played a Test in a long time, Cook has been playing quite a bit of domestic cricket in his time off national duty.
During the Specsavers County Championship match between Essex and Middlesex, Cook and his opening partner Nick Browne created history as they broke the record for the highest opening wicket stand for the club by putting on 373 for the first wicket.
The pair passed Graham Gooch and Paul Prichard's record of 316, which was set in 1994, as Essex declared on 542-3.
Shortly after the day’s play, a video surfaced on Essex County Cricket Club’s Facebook page which went viral. In the video, Cook was seen talking to a reporter about county cricket with a batsman practising in the background.
A few seconds into the video, it looks like the batsman mishit the ball directly towards the reporter’s head. However, Cook got his hand out in time and luckily caught the ball without looking at it and saved the reporter from being hit. The former England captain showcased superb reflexes and looked extremely calm and collected while collected the ball.
However, if we look closely and critique what occurred during those 30 odd seconds, it seems like it was all scripted.
Firstly, the camera pans away and focuses on the batsman in the background as Cook converses with the reporter.
Secondly, the batsman shouts out as he hits the ball and just before the ball is about to hit the reporter. It seems like he shouts out the word “ball”
Thirdly, Cook walks away as soon as the video gets over and does not seem to continue the conversation with the reporter.
And finally, the reporter’s reaction was as if nothing really had happened. If it were real, the reporter would have probably been a lot more surprised at the incident and shown a lot more emotion.
It did seem like a marketing gimmick for any company and fans are unsure of why it was done in the first place. Despite it being scripted, Cook still did a fantastic job to take the catch without looking at the ball and taking it with one hand despite the ball having a lot of pace on it.
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Not the first time
A few years ago, a similar scripted event took place after a baseball match in the USA when the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria “saved” a television reporter from an incoming ball along the first-base line.
Despite Longoria claiming that the video was not scripted, many reports suggested that the video was shot as an advertisement for Gillette. The company never televised any advertisement of sorts but the video of the catch went viral on social media.
However, the acting in this video in comparison to Cook’s catch seemed a lot more realistic with the batter hitting the ball from a long distance and with Longoria seen rubbing his hand after taking the catch.
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