Piers Morgan slams move to confer Alastair Cook knighthood

Alastair Cook, England’s highest run-getter in Tests who quit the game earlier this year at the age of 33, has been honoured with knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II. The former England captain, who is the first cricketer to be honoured with ‘Sir’ title since the legendary all-rounder Ian Botham in 2007, signed off in September this year with a hundred against India, against whom he had also hit his debut ton in Tests in 2006.

TV personality Piers Morgan was not happy with the decision to confer Cook knighthood and lashed out at the former cricketer saying he never was the best player in the England team while his Test average was the 24th best in all-time list for his country. Morgan has been known to be a strong Cook critic and was vocal against him at the time of his announcement from retirement from cricket.

Morgan has always been a Cook-critic

According to Morgan, Cook never scored important runs and that he had only “bored” him to tears. It is said that Morgan harbours the belief that it was Cook who had ruined the career of the former’s good friend Kevin Pietersen, a promising England batsman who never found his career going as his fans would have liked to.

In a tweet, the 53-year-old Morgan, who even has expressed his disappointment over the New Years Honours List in the past, expressed his disbelief over Alastair Cook being conferred the title of ‘Sir’ and called it a farce that he got it even before England’s legendary batsman Geoffrey Boycott.

Here is Morgan’s tweet

Sir Alastair Cook?????
A knighthood for a guy who has only the 24th best English Test batting average & was never even the best player in his own team?
And he gets one ahead of the great @GeoffreyBoycott?
What a farce. pic.twitter.com/SHw8Heu2iN

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 29, 2018

Cook came up with a sudden announcement about his retirement ahead of the final Test match between England and India at the Oval after the hosts secured the five-match series 3-1. The former opener said he had “nothing left in the tank” but yet went on to hit a hundred in his farewell Test which England won. The Gloucester-born southpaw played 161 Test in 12 years amassing 12,472 runs with 33 hundreds and at an average of 45.35. He bettered the record of his mentor Graham Gooch to become the Three Lions’ top scorer in the longest format.

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