Sam Cook: Overseas experience will benefit him at Essex, says paceman

Sam Cook took 48 County Championship wickets last summer and 16 in the T20 Blast

Essex seam bowler Sam Cook expects his winter experiences overseas to make him an even better player this summer.

He played in a T10 tournament in Abu Dhabi before taking part in South Africa's 20-over competition.

Cook has new responsibilities at Chelmsford after being appointed as the club's vice-captain.

"I've been fortunate in seeing how different dressing rooms work, I think that's something I can bring to the role," the 26-year-old told BBC Essex.

"It's maybe about setting an example by the way you go about what you do, almost let your actions speak louder than your words. It's a bit of a cliche but that's probably how I'll choose to go about it."

Cook is one of the most consistent performers in county cricket, having taken 265 first-class wickets at an average of 19.94 and 81 in T20 matches.

He also produced figures of 4-18 as Trent Rockets beat Manchester Originals in the 2022 final of The Hundred.

"There's lots of learning from the whole winter that I'll be bringing back to Chelmsford for the summer. A combination of new skills and new tactics," he said.

"I've been very fortunate to have brilliant coaches at Essex and I've been exposed to some other great coaches around the world now as well. Spreading yourself across the different competitions, you take different things on board from different environments.

"Pooling those resources and ideas together is one of the massive benefits of how the cricket landscape is at the minute and it's only going to improve our team at Essex.

"I've been reinforcing what I do well but trying to take the T20 bowling to that next level because obviously the batting is going up (in standard) year on year."

Essex finished second to Surrey in last season's County Championship and start the new campaign with an away game against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on 5 April.

"We want to start strong, we want to hit the ground running," Cook said.

"You see how close the County Championship has been the last few years, you almost can't afford to have one week where you're not quite at the races."

Cook's namesake Sir Alastair announced his retirement in October and England batter Dan Lawrence has moved on to Surrey, but they have been replaced by former South Africa Test opener Dean Elgar and wicketkeeper Jordan Cox, who has arrived from Kent.

"It's a statement of where the club's at that we can attract players of the quality of Dean and Coxy," he added.

"Losing Chef and Loz last year was gutting but I don't think we could have filled their shoes much better in terms of like for like replacements."

Sam Cook was speaking to BBC Essex Sport's Victoria Polley.