Graham Wagg admits he will owe Sir Alistair Cook a debt of gratitude before he locks horns with the former England captain in Glamorgan’s Royal London One-Day Cup opener with Essex.
Wagg is in his Testimonial Year and to help mark the occasion he contacted Cook to ask whether England’s record Test runscorer might be inclined to headline a Question and Answer evening at Sophia Gardens.
The fact the evening was set to occur the day before Glamorgan host Essex in the first round of the Royal London One-Day Cup competition made no difference for Cook, who duly obliged.
“When the fixture list came out I got in touch and asked if he could come along, and had he declined I would have understood, especially as it was the night before a 11 o’clock start the following day,” Wagg said.
“He agreed, and it just sums up the great respect we all have for him.”
The following day, Wagg will be trying his best to dismiss Cook as soon as possible, although he has not played many times against the former England captain.
“Due to his international commitments and his limited availability for Essex, he has been absent for most of the time,” he said.
“But I know that our bowlers will relish the opportunity of testing themselves against one of the all-time greats.”
Wagg and his teammates have just completed a gruelling Specsavers County Championship match against Northants, where they bowled 227.3 overs in the visitors’ innings, the most Glamorgan have ever bowled in a championship game.
“It was a fantastic batting pitch but good practice for us as a bowling unit and to restrict them to 3.2 runs an over was a great effort,” he said.
“Of course we were tired after the game, but we have had a day to recover and are looking forward to a different environment in the one-day series”.
“It’s a change of mindset, change of ball, bowling restrictions and a totally different approach. But we have concentrated a lot on 50-over cricket during our pre-season tour of La Manga, and we need to be well prepared for Essex, who have a strong one-day squad”.
Glamorgan won only one game in the competition last season but were beset by injuries and the unavailability of established players.
Michael Hogan and Marchant De Lange, their two strike bowlers, played in only five games between them, while Shaun Marsh and Kiran Carlson were other notable absentees.
Australia Test batsman Marnus Labuschagne, who is Glamorgan’s overseas player, signed in with a century in his first championship game and could play a part with the white ball too after his handy leg-spin earned him three wickets from 44 overs against Northants.
“Leg spin is important in one day games and Marnus will give us a different option,” Wagg said.
An evening with the latest cricketing knight is a sell out at Sophia Gardens, and a win against Cook’s team 24 hours later would seal a perfect start to Glamorgan’s Wagg’s Testimonial year and Glamorgan’s One Day season.
Article written by Edward Bevan on behalf of the ECB's reporter network