Alastair Cook says I had decided to quit captaincy at the end of the Ashes

Alastair Cook says I had decided to quit captaincy at the end of the Ashes: Alastair Cook has said that he wanted to quit as England captain at the end of the Ashes, not considering whether England lost or won the five-match Test series, but is now fixated on carrying on for a ‘bit longer’.

Speaking to newspaper Daily Mail, Cook said he had changed his decision only after waking up in the morning after England racked up the Ashes with a resounding victory by an innings and 78 runs in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge last week that put them 3-1 ahead of Australia.

Cook said, “I pretty much decided last Sunday, I woke up and immediately started thinking about trying to win the Ashes 4-1 and then about what we will have to do to win against Pakistan. It came quickly to me to start planning ahead and that told me that I probably wanted to carry on a bit longer.

“It absolutely has been on my mind. At the start of this summer, I didn’t know what was going to happen and I wasn’t sure if I would continue beyond the Ashes. But while you’ve still got the opportunity to be England captain and you’ve still got more to give, which I now feel I have, then you need to carry on and give it your all. I think that’s why most people stay on until the bitter end. It’s such an honour to lead England and the moment you know you haven’t got any more to give is the moment to stop doing it. That usually comes at a tough time when you think, ‘I can’t force myself to go through this again’. I’d love to go out on a high but I kind of knew pretty quickly after the end of the game at Trent Bridge that I still have that drive to take this team forward.” he said.

Cook confirmed that he is yet to speak to Andrew Strauss, the England Director of cricket, about his decision, and would leave it to Trevor Bayliss, the team coach, to take a call on the right time for England to have a new leader.

“I haven’t spoken to Andrew Strauss yet and I don’t want to look too far ahead,” The one-day stuff has taught me that, but as long as they still want me, and as long as Trevor Bayliss doesn’t have other ideas, I’ll carry on.” the Ashes winning English skipper said.

Cook’s role as captain came under scrutiny during last year’s Ashes when England were routed 5-0 in Australia, followed by the controversial sacking of Kevin Pietersen.

“There have been some really dark moments in the last year or so,” he said. “There was the KP affair and that dragged English cricket through some bad periods. I bore the brunt of that negativity and it took it out of me and my family. To come through that means a lot.”

“This is not a ‘poor me’ thing but I felt in the really low moments that I was getting blamed for absolutely everything that had gone wrong. Even when we had a bad day and I hadn’t done anything it was still my fault. There were times when I found it very hard to deal with and was very close to giving it all up. To stay strong through it all – I’m proud of that. I stayed on then probably because of my stubbornness and maybe to prove people wrong. I wanted to show I could captain England to success and was single-minded in trying to do that. Hopefully I have done that now.”

England and Australia will battle in the 5th and final Test of the Ashes 2015 at the Oval from August 20.