He almost did. Almost. Famously, Alastair Cook does not sweat that much, which, if you think about how sweat works and the stresses he puts his body through as a professional athlete, is probably not an especially healthy condition.
Many times, as he has cliched his way through interviews, with that patented service-industry smile, it has seemed like he does not do emotion either.
On Saturday though, he almost shed tears. Interviewed post-match by Michael Atherton, Cook began talking and soon after, faltered. A little quiver of the lips and his face underwent subtle but unmissable contortions, of a kind rarely seen before.
He paused and looked away. Then he resumed, as he would to face another ball after being beaten by a jaffa. The moment was as awkward as his batting.
Read more:
– Graham Caygill: Five key moments that helped England win back Ashes
– England batsman Joe Root on top of the world after regaining the Ashes from Australia
Perhaps it was an epidemic, given that moments earlier, Michael Clarke too had shed tears in his interview. Or was it a previously unseen Oprah-esque quality in Atherton’s interviewing technique, a knowing empathy and compassion designed to draw tears?
Whatever it was, the moment should warm any heart. We all have a rough grasp of how much triumph means to an athlete, so, of course, Cook was overcome. But for him to inadvertently reveal just how much it meant, how could anyone watching not empathise?
Especially because he has been such a curious central force in the wretchedness of recent English cricket. Cook has been pilloried as an establishment dweeb for his role in the ending of Kevin Pietersen’s England career.
That establishment then sacked him from the one-day captaincy. It also sacked two of his coaches. Several trusted senior colleagues left the game. Meanwhile, his own batting dipped, a function that once thrived off cocooning itself from circumstance, now brought down by circumstances.
Through it all Cook has walked, like Mr Stevens, the butler from The Remains of the Day, for whom nothing is more sacred than the ability to maintain dignity, especially under the greatest strife.
Cook was, in many ways, in such an unmistakably British quandary, unable to speak or emote about it. After a while it seemed like he was taking some cussed pride in his continuing silence.
Public tears, any spin doctor will tell you, are genuine tools in public battles for opinion. Politicians love breaking down if they think it may win support. Conversely, too much too often can fracture.
Clarke’s popularity in Australia, for instance, swung hugely after the death of Phillip Hughes, when he broke down publicly. He was at his most leaderly and most-loved right after that trauma.
There was nothing manufactured or cynical about it, as there was not with Cook. It was genuine emotion. That little moment captured the difficulties of the last 18 months more than words could. It is not outlandish to think it may have the same effect on Cook’s standing as Clarke’s tears did for him.
The moment also captured something of this looser, less straitjacketed England side, freed not so much from overzealous management as bad karma. All series, and maybe most of the summer, England’s cricket held the quality of release, from being wound up tighter and tighter over two years.
It has not been unbeatable cricket, but it has been attractive and smart. Through Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Mark Wood and even Moeen Ali, they have provided some of the most absorbing moments of play.
Cook as well, as he conceded, has had to change himself. That has been evident on the field, though he could do with finding his old self as a batsman, the kind who would not waste the starts he has made in this series.
But because the entire enterprise has looked fragile, the up-down nature of England’s results has actually enhanced the spectacle. An honesty has marked England’s game, in stark contrast to the hubris that has defined Australia’s.
Hubris, however, is what has emerged so often so soon for England after Ashes triumphs, especially one as giddy as this. They face Pakistan next in the UAE, opponents and venue designed to puncture hubris.
In many ways, it will be a more important series than the Ashes; winning abroad in unfamiliar conditions should now be any ambitious side’s ultimate aim.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at NatSportUAE
