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Full name Simon James Cook
Born January 15, 1977, Oxford
Current age 31 years 324 days
Major teams Kent, Middlesex
Nickname Chef
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium
Height 6 ft 4 in
Education Matthew Arnold School

Batting and fielding averages

Mat

Inns

Runs

Ave

100

First-class

104

133

1887

93*

16.40

List A

164

101

1193

67*

17.04

Twenty20

106

25*

15.14

127.71

Bowling averages

Mat

Inns

Balls

Runs

Wkts

BBI

BBM

Ave

Econ

First-class

104

15860

8347

259

8/63

32.22

3.15

61.2

List A

164

7291

5744

205

6/37

28.01

4.72

35.5

Twenty20

835

1069

3/14

21.38

7.68

16.7

Career statistics

First-class debut

1999

Last First-class

Kent v New Zealanders at Canterbury, Apr 28-30, 2008 scorecard

List A debut

1997

Last List A

Surrey v Kent at The Oval, Sep 2, 2008 scorecard

Twenty20 debut

Surrey v Middlesex at The Oval, Jun 13, 2003 scorecard

Last Twenty20

Kent v Middlesex at Southampton, Jul 26, 2008 scorecard

Standing at 6ft 4ins, Simon Cook is a lively fast-medium bowler. He jumped from taking the new ball for Cumnor - a league side in Oxfordshire - in 1996 to taking the new ball with Angus Fraser for Middlesex against Ireland in the Benson & Hedges Cup a year later. The considerable promotion was accidental: he admits Middlesex scouts "weren't watching me, they were looking at Andy Strauss, who they also signed". The pair were playing together in a representative U-19s match against Warwickshire

At Middlesex, shin splints and a stress fracture delayed Cook's progress from an effective one-day bowler to Championship bowler. In 2000 injury and form restricted him to only seven first-class appearances. When Fraser, his mentor, left the club two years later for a career in journalism, he filled the containing role and recorded his best, 8 for 63, at Northampton on a good batting track and finished just short of 50 first-class wickets. In 2004 he equalled Adam Hollioake's National League record of 39 wickets in a season, and was also Middlesex's leading first-class wicket-taker. However, in Cook's eight years there, they won no titles, and at the end of 2004, he signed a two-year contract with Kent.
Debashish Biswas (September 2006)

Apr 8, 2008

Portrait of Simon Cook © Kent County Cricket Club

Aug 4, 2007

Simon Cook makes an unsuccessful appeal against Murray Goodwin © Getty Images

Jun 27, 2005

Simon Cook headshot © Getty Images

View the full list of 8 related images