The new Test captain denies there are cliques within the squad and says the team are ready to win this winter
Getty
Alastair Cook has rubbished any notion of problems existing in the England dressing room as the Kevin Pietersen affair rumbles on ahead of his first tour as Test captain.
Cook, who will enjoy a fortnight?s honeymoon in Argentina before leading his team into a four-Test series in India next month, knows team spirit will be vital in his bid for an historic win.
England have not triumphed in a Test series on Indian since 1984-85, the winter in which Cook was born.
It makes this the final frontier for a team that broke their 24-year Ashes hoodoo in Australia so spectacularly two years ago.
The 27-year-old has kept his own counsel on the subject of KP until now, but offered a fairly combative response to the accusations flying around that a powerful group of senior players were in some way responsible for the ostracising of Pietersen.
Cook said: ?No, I don?t see there are out-of-control egos and cliques running the dressing room. That is not how I see it at all. It?s the same dressing room praised for our team spirit and how we went about things for 18 months.
?Clearly, since the Headingley Test match everyone has thrown that out of the window, saying that we are not a united team because of the circumstances. A lot of that is just speculation because of what is happening at the ?moment behind closed doors.
?People don?t really know what is going on.
?Like any team you always have to work on it. You can?t take team spirit and team unity for granted, especially now that we have got some new faces we are going to have ?to introduce them and make them feel comfortable.
?It?s an area we can all work on and always improve, but India is one of those places that can strengthen team ?spirit because you end up in each ?other?s pockets for two months. I?m hoping that bonds us as a team because we can do something special.?
Cook has also made his first call since ?succeeding Andrew Strauss at the helm ? the man who will be his vice-captain.
He said: ?It is a big decision and we haven?t announced it yet because of circumstances going on, and everyone being out of the country.?
The smart money to be No.2 is on Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann or James ?Anderson ? the trio KP felt were behind his Twitter parody account.
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/england-cricket-alastair-cook-calls-1339138
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