• England Cricket

World Cup axe 'wasted' my form - Cook

ESPN staff
April 6, 2011
Alastair Cook tormented Australia's bowlers during the Ashes Tests © Getty Images
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Alastair Cook has accused England's selectors of "wasting" his sensational form by not including him in the World Cup squad.

Despite scoring 766 runs at an average of 127 in England's Ashes triumph, Cook did not feature in the subsequent 50-over tournament on the Indian sub-continent.

And after England bowed out with a whimper at the quarter-final stage against Sri Lanka, having previously lost to Bangladesh and Ireland, Cook has suggested he could have made a difference.

"It was frustrating because I was in as good form as I've ever been and, as much as it was nice to be back home, for me personally I felt wasted because form like that doesn't come very often," Cook told Metro. "But the selectors went a different way and you've got to live with that."

With Andrew Strauss' one-day future up in the air, Cook has been heavily linked with the national captaincy - but he insists it was tiredness, rather than leadership, that provoked England's downfall at the World Cup.

"For starters, you can't have a five-month tour with a World Cup at the end of it, especially with an Ashes series where it takes so much out of you," Cook said. "It's madness. The guys looked very tired. Speaking to a couple of them, they were tired so they tried to hide it but ultimately they couldn't hit the standards they'd have liked."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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