Former England captain Alastair Cook sparked a heated debate recently, claiming that youngster Jacob Bethell should return to County cricket due to a lack of playing time with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2026. Cook’s remarks followed Bethell being benched for RCB’s first six games of the season. However, Kevin Pietersen strongly disagreed, advising the youngster to remain with the franchise regardless of whether he makes the XI. Pietersen also took a sly dig at Cook, suggesting the former opener has “no clue” about the developmental value the IPL offers a young player, even from the sidelines.
Reacting to Pietersen’s comment, Cook defended his stance, despite admitting that being around some of the best players in the world surely provides a wealth of experience.
“I just gave my opinion. I can justify that at the time he wasn’t playing, and he didn’t play (much) last year either. So, he had that benefit of doing once or twice. In my opinion, he has done a bit of that. Ironically, since all that came out, he has now played a bit,” Cook said on The Overlap Cricket’s “Stick to Cricket” podcast.
Despite Bethell featuring in the last three games due to an injury Phil Salt, Cook reiterated his stance by highlighting that the 22-year-old also played just two games last season.
“I get the other argument of learning, but there’s got to be a stage where you have to play. You can’t just learn from them. I know the IPL is a great tournament, but no one is ever publicly going to say that IPL is not the place to be,” he added.
Cook also took a jibe at the IPL, saying that players won’t openly criticise the league as they are afraid of losing their big-money contracts.
“I actually understand both arguments like he has signed the contract, (so) I’m going to honour my contract. Now, I don’t know what the IPL is like quite clearly, but you hear some of the little undercurrents like it’s not quite as good as everyone thinks it is. I’m not slagging off the IPL – no one ever is going to say it’s terrible because they don’t want to upset their bosses, because they want another contract. I actually feel two opinions can be right,” Cook claimed.
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