Former England skipper Alastair Cook retires from all cricket

Former England captain Alastair Cook, his country's record Test runs scorer, has announced his retirement from professional cricket.

The 38-year-old left-handed opener, who retired from international cricket in 2018, played his entire county career with Essex.

His contract at the county expired at the end of the domestic season last month and Cook, part of Essex's County Championship-winning side in 2019, has elected against seeking a renewal.

"It is not easy to say goodbye. For more than two decades, cricket has been so much more than my job," he said in a statement on the Essex website.

"It has allowed me to experience places I never dreamed I would go, be part of teams that have achieved things I would never have thought possible and, most importantly, created deep friendships that will last a lifetime."

"From the eight-year-old boy who first played for Wickham Bishops Under 11s to now, I end with a strange feeling of sadness mixed with pride. Although, above all, I am incredibly happy."

Scorer of 12,472 Test runs for England and capped 161 times, Cook said it was the right time to go and "make way for the new generation to take over".

Cook was England Test captain from 2012 to 2017 and also captain for 69 one-day internationals from 2010-14.

Cook bowed out of England duty with a hundred against India at The Oval in September 2018 and was given a knighthood for services to cricket a few months later.

He scored 766 runs in seven innings during the 2010-11 Ashes tour to help England to their first series win in Australia for 24 years. 

The three wins England had on that tour were his only taste of victory Down Under, part of the sides that were whitewashed 5-0 in 2006-07 and again in 2013-14, when he was captain and on the receiving end of perhaps the greatest delivery from a fast bowler when bowled first ball of the second innings by Ryan Harris.

In all, England lost 15 of the 20 Tests Cook played in Australia.

Alastair Cook's career in numbers

161 – number of Test appearances for England. 

12,472 – Test runs, placing him fifth in the all-time world list. 

45.35 – his Test batting average. He averaged 48.94 in Australia with five hundreds in 20 Tests

294 – his career-best score, against India at Edgbaston in 2011 when England went to No.1 in the world Test rankings. 

244 – his not out highest Test score in Australia, scored at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test of 2017-18

33 – Test centuries, a record for an Englishman, the last coming in his final Test. Five of those were double-hundreds, two of which he scored in Australia. 

2 – innings he needed to record his first Test hundred. He made an unbeaten 104 at the second time of asking on debut against India in Nagpur – after 60 at his first attempt. 

59 – Tests in which Cook was England captain. 

352 – first-class matches. 

26,643 – first-class runs. 

913 – runs scored in the 2019 County Championship season as Essex won the title. 

14 – Cook's age when he made a century as a guest, making up the numbers for the MCC, against his own Bedford School team. 

766 – runs scored in the 2010-11 Ashes series, when England won 3-1 in Australia, England's only series win in Australia since the 1986-87 series. 

92 – one-day internationals played by Cook, with five centuries and 19 fifties. He also played four Twenty20 internationals.