Alastair Cook engages in an on-air argument with Moeen Ali for comments on his captaincy

Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook has had a somewhat relationship in recent times with his former teammate and all-rounder Moeen Ali. 

Ali and Cook had a heated debate last year over Joe Root’s captaincy

During the 2021-22 Ashes Down Under, Moeen, while making an appearance in a talk show, had claimed that Joe Root, the English test captain at the time, had a more emotional attachment with his players. Cook, who was attending the show with Moeen, didn’t take too kindly to this comment, however, and blatantly called out Moeen and asked if he was criticizing his captaincy. 

Moeen admitted that he did ‘a little bit’, and cited how much better he performed with the ball under Root’s leadership. Cook defended this stance by bringing up the number of times Root had dropped him from the squad. Moeen replied, “That’s true, but you also batted me from numbers 1 through 9 in my first year of international cricket”.

At the time, the exchange between Moeen and Cook had gone quite viral, with several speculating that there was a major rift between the two. But it would seem now that the two have since tried to sort out their issues. During the second test match between England and New Zealand, Moeen and Cook have been commentating  together for the BBC commentary team. And in that time, there has been an interesting conversation between the two about their apparent fall-out. 

Moeen Ali and Cook clarify their comments on-air during the NZ vs ENG test match

Cook started off by telling his version of the story that basically summarized Moeen Ali telling everyone how we wasn’t a good captain.

“I was coming back from a holiday, walking straight back to the studio at midnight. I met the all-smiling Mo, as he always is, very happy. Anyway, half an hour into the shift, he basically told everyone who is watching and listening, ‘I wasn’t a very good captain and I wouldn’t be a very good coach’. That’s kind of how it went. So, I actually feel as if I have nothing to defend here,” he told on-air during BBC’s test match special.

Moeen, however, clarified that his comments were taken out of context, and he only claimed that Root has more empathy towards his players. Furthermore, he reasoned that Cook had taken his comments personally, which is what caused them to become viral in the first place. 

“It was a little bit out of context. I was basically saying that Rooty had a lot more empathy for players than you did! And I never mentioned once that you’re not a good captain or if you are or aren’t better than Rooty. And then, you took it personally to heart and it went viral,” said Moeen.

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It would’ve been fun to hear the two talk out more about the issue, but as it happened, Jack Leach managed to dismiss the well-set Daryl Mitchell right at that time which put an end to the discussion. But there’s still a lot to savour from the two discussing the matter on-air on a public forum. Here’s the video of their conversation: