Jonathan Agnew

Players like Alastair Cook do not come around very often. To play for so long and achieve so much says everything about his fitness, concentration, discipline and skill.

In any international sporting career an opportunity comes along that you have to grab. Mine came at Old Trafford in 1985 when I was recalled to the England team to face Australia. It was a huge chance to prove I belonged in the Test side but I failed to take it.

Bowling on English pitches is not rocket science. If you bowl a good length on off stump, the ball just has to do a fraction, up or down or side to side, and you get someone out.

It is one thing to err on the side of caution. Equally, Test wins have to be earned. They are seldom handed to you on a plate.

As a batting captain, you do have to earn bowlers' trust, especially when it comes to fields.

If anyone ever accuses me of bias - on Twitter, say - they're blocked straight away. It simply isn't true.

Divorce is something I think that children feel particularly hard and what's sad about a lot of divorces, and certainly about my divorce, is that absent fathers who really want to play a part in their children's lives but don't live there, they have a pretty tough time.

The old player in me can certainly sympathise with how your targets change because you simply do not know what is around the corner.

I played at school then signed up with Leicestershire when I was 18, for £20 per week. In those days cricket wasn't a full-time job; in the winter you had nothing to do."

A disciplined, patient, defensive period in a Test match is not old fashioned and boring - it's essential.

My dad was a keen cricketer - he played at school and club level - but it was hard for him to find time for it because he was a farmer, so he encouraged me and my brother.

Test cricket might seem to be slow and ponderous at times, yet it is capable of conjuring great drama from nowhere.