Wow! What a week for cricketing milestones! Harbajhan Singh's 400th Test wicket, Shiv Chanderpaul's West Indies record Test appearance and Arul Suppiah's world best T20 bowling figures of 6 for 5!
I've already written about the Somerset all-rounder's tremendous performance in the short form of the game in a previous blog and I really believed he would be the only realistic candidate for my Player of the Week award. However, in this week's welter of county T20 fixtures, there have been many performances to catch the eye. Leicestershire captain Andrew MacDonald, Sussex's Chris Nash and Surrey 'keeper-batsman Stephen Davies have all turned it on consistently. A few days after Suppiah's record, Kiwi Tim Southee also claimed 6 wickets in an innings for Essex against Glamorgan, including a hat-trick in the final over. In the three games he played this week, he took ten wickets for 71 runs although only in the latest was he particularly economical. He has struck a few big blows at the top of the batting order, too, but has passed ten runs only once in the past nine innings for Essex.
However, my Player for the Week has to be Alastair Cook. I wrote yesterday about his wonderful displays for England in the Sri Lanka Test and 50-over series, not just for the sheer volume of runs while under pressure over his new captaincy duties, but also for his ability to score quickly despite what critics were whingeing about. He always did demonstrate the temperament for a world-class opening batsman and now he's doing the same as skipper. Perhaps he has benefited from the long line of recent England captains coming from Essex (Fletcher, Gooch, Hussain) but he has the talent to go with it. He is already the world's top player in 2011 and at this rate could even proceed to overhaul a few records set by Sachin Tendulkar within ten to fifteen years.
Of course, it would be too much to expect Cook to maintain such prolific form year after year. Gooch and Vaughan have each enjoyed spectacular periods for England with the bat, before age and injury caught up with them. Let's hope Alastair stays fit. He certainly has age on his side and many more Player of the Week awards could also head his way.
