Middlesex CCC

“The body was a bit sore, 1300 squats in the field, it comes with the territory I guess, being a keeper you have those days.”

That was Chris Cooke’s assessment following the opening day of the County Championship season at Lords, watching his bowlers run in nearly 1300 times in one innings from behind the stumps.

Now imagine doing that for 14 games a season, plus T20’s and the Hundred for nearly a decade and a half.

This is Cooke’s 14th season at Glamorgan, given a testimonial year to mark the occasion, over five and a half thousand miles from his hometown of Johannesburg.

“Growing up I was always playing cricket, but that journey certainly took some ups and downs growing up in South Africa,” said Cooke, 37.

“In South Africa, there are only six professional teams, a lot of politics involved and contracts are difficult to get and living there those last few years became very tough.

“I was lucky I had a British passport. I made the decision to come over here and see if I could make it and it worked out quite nicely.” 

However, it wasn’t as simple as flying the 5,000 plus miles to Britain, Cooke had to apply for a spot as you would for any other job and rely on some good fortune to end up at Sophia Gardens.

“I was living in a static caravan on the field and sending my CV to all the teams and they get bombarded with stuff,” said Cooke.

“I was lucky Richard Almond, the second team coach at the time, picked up my CV and could resonate with a few of the teams being a South African himself, so he knew I was no mug and played to a certain standard.

“Will Bragg who was keeping for the seconds at the time had just got injured, so they needed a keeper, and I came down and did alright and the rest is history.”

Cooke made his mark immediately, on debut he hit his second, third and fourth balls for six in a T20 against Middlesex in 2011.

“I came in late on in the innings and I didn’t have to think,” said Cooke.

“I missed the first ball, connected with the next three which went for six, had a lucky four and then I was out.

“It was short but sweet and definitely gave me a bit of confidence that I belonged at that level and it’s a cool thing to tell the grandkids that your first three scoring shots went for six.”

Twelve years later, Cooke broke Glamorgan’s record for most appearances in T20 cricket in his 137th game and marked the occasion with their fastest ever 100 with a 38 ball century.

“Getting my first T20 hundred and for it to be a record as the fastest ever hundred for Glamorgan, something which wasn’t even on my radar, is pretty special,” said Cooke.

“I was just swinging, I thought I might be close to the record, but I was lucky enough to be in the zone.

“When you’re there, you’re not thinking about anything apart from what’s coming down at you, almost picturing where the ball is going to land before it does, you know what the bowler is going to bowl, and you stop thinking.

“You’re only in that zone a couple of times a career, if you could wrap that feeling up and sell it, you’d be a millionaire, every sportsman wants that feeling as much as possible.”

Perhaps someone has managed to bottle that feeling and give it to the players this season with captain Sam Northeast getting a record-breaking score at Lords in their first game of the County Championship Division Two and then Cooke scoring an unbeaten 126 in their second match.

That score took Cooke past 7,000 runs for Glamorgan in first class cricket while it also cemented his place in history as the 1,000th century scored for the county.

His 13th century of his first-class career was the latest in a long line of career highlights for Glamorgan.

“I think my love for the club grew over time, I always dreamt of playing for South Africa and at Newlands in Cape Town, but Glamorgan have shown a lot of faith in me and I love Cardiff, I’m so glad I landed here,” said Cooke.

“One highlight was the One Day Cup we won in 2021. I wasn’t in the team that day as I was with the Hundred, but I was there supporting and to finally get over the line and get a trophy was great.

“There’ve been a lot of amazing wins, the one up in Leicester a few years ago when Sam got 410 and we won it from nowhere, I’ll probably look back at that one as the best win I’ve been involved with from a team perspective.”

• Glamorgan get much needed win 

Despite this being Cooke’s testimonial year, he hasn’t decided to retire as yet and is hoping to win a couple more titles before he decides to call time on his career at Sophia Gardens.

“I’d like to keep playing and trying to win trophies, hopefully we’ll have some good discussions, and I can keep being a part of the club for a couple more seasons,” said Cooke.

“I’m very lucky to have had the career I’ve had, I played with a lot of guys growing up who were far more talented than I was, you’ve got to enjoy it, it’s a privilege to be playing for the ‘Daff’ and I hope I can continue to do so for a few more years yet.

“We’ve got a new coach, new captains, new CEO and chairman, there’s a lot of change around Glammy and it feels like a bit of a new era so I’d like to be part of it.”

Whilst he is not ready to hang up his gloves just yet, Cooke is seeing his testimonial year as an opportunity to build relationships for his future career after retirement.

“This testimonial season I’m meeting some amazing people, and you get a chance to do things outside of the game you wouldn’t normally do,” said Cooke.

“The networking is amazing, I’m trying a few things and hopefully I’ll have a few more winters down the line to nail what path I want to go into although I’d like to stay in sport somehow, it’s been a big part of my life so I’ll be really happy if I can stay in the industry.”

There are plenty of events both on and off the pitch to look forward to during Cooke’s testimonial season, starting with an evening with Australian cricketer Marnus Labuschagne on the 17th of May at the Cardiff & County Club.

“The evening with Marnus Labuschagne should be good,” said Cooke.

“After that on the 28th of June we’ve got a Celebrity cricket day at Sophia Gardens which’ll be a Cook XI versus a celebrity XI, with some of the celebrities already confirmed for that one.

“There’ll also be a couple of golf days and more cricket days along with a celebrity cooking event at Cornerstone which’ll be cool.

“If you’re interested, head to www.chriscooketestimonial.co.uk for more information.”

This interview was port of Sportin Wales’ May issue of the magazine. To read more articles go here.