Nicholas Grant Billson Cook (born 17 June 1956) is an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

umpire and former player who appeared in 15 Tests and three ODIs between 1983 and 1989. A slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler and a lower order right-handed batsman, he played first-class and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numb ...

from 1978 to 1994. He is currently an ECB appointed umpire on the professional circuit. He was born in Leicester and attended

Lutterworth Grammar School Lutterworth College is a large 11–19 non-selective, inclusive, comprehensive, Church of England Secondary School and Sixth Form College with academy status. Lutterworth College is situated in the rural market town of Lutterworth in the dist ...

. Cook made his international debut against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. One of three England debutants in the match along with

Neil Foster Neil Alan Foster (born 6 May 1962) is an English former professional cricketer, who played 29 Test matches and 48 One Day Internationals for England from 1983 to 1993. Domestically Foster played for Essex County Cricket Club from 1980 to 1993, ...

and Chris Smith, Cook was called up because of an injury to

Phil Edmonds Philippe-Henri Edmonds (born 8 March 1951) is a former cricketer who represented England at international level and Middlesex at county level. After retiring he became a successful, albeit controversial, corporate executive. Edmonds played mo ...

, which occurred so late that Cook had already started playing in a

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

match against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and had to be replaced by

Jonathan Agnew Jonathan Philip Agnew, (born 4 April 1960) is an English cricket broadcaster and a former professional cricketer. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated at Uppingham School. He is nicknamed "Aggers", and, less commonly, "Spiro" � ...

as full substitute. He picked up 32 wickets in his first four Tests, taking four five-fors, including one on debut (after he had been called up at short notice), and a best bowling match return of 11 for 83 against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

. As of 2022, these remain the best Test match figures ever taken by a visiting bowler in Pakistan, and he holds the record for the most Test wickets by an English bowler in Pakistan. However, Cook's next 11 Tests, spread over a period of five years, fetched him 20 wickets at an average of 56.75. He had more success as a bowler against Pakistan and New Zealand than against Australia and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. He was finally dropped from Test cricket after the 1989 series against Australia in which England surrendered

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

. His total of 52 Test wickets were taken at an average of 32.48. He played his last

one-day international A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

that autumn in the

Nehru Cup The Nehru Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to ...

. He finished on the winning side of each of his three one-day internationals, although after England won his first two Tests against

, he never again finished on the winning side in Test matches. In the domestic game, Cook played for Leicestershire, before later moving to

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. He was part of the

team that lost the final of both the

Benson and Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Engla ...

and the

NatWest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. La ...

at Lord's in 1987, but five years later also featured on the winning side in the final of the latter tournament. Since retiring from the game, Cook has become an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

and in November 2008, was promoted to the ECB full list for the 2009 season.

References

1956 births Living people England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers English cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers English cricket umpires Cricketers from Leicester Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers {{England-cricket-bio-1950s-stub