England batsman Alastair Cook said he felt “very humble” after receiving his Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) medal from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
The left-handed opener’s prolific form in Australia during the 2010-2011 Ashes series helped England to a 3-1 series win — their first Test campaign triumph in Australia in 24 years.
Cook, 26, scored a mammoth 766 runs in the series to play a major part in that series win, which helped propel England to the top of the Test rankings.
“It’s been a fantastic couple of years for the England cricket team and for me to be here and get the MBE is an honor — I feel very humble to be given it,” Cook said.
Cook paid tribute to the input of coach Andy Flower and England captain Andrew Strauss, saying: “We’ve had fantastic leadership under Andy Flower and Andy Strauss, and we’ve been outstanding. The aim now is to maintain that.”
“Everyone is desperately determined to continue to remain at the top and a lot of hard work is needed, and we’re going to have to scrap very hard in a lot of games. We’ve got a lot of confidence from what we’ve achieved, but hopefully it’s not the end of it,” he added.
Cook began his Test career with a second-innings century in Nagpur, India, in March, 2006, and has now made 19 Test tons in all.
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