"I like being outside and I like hard work." — Alastair Cook

The England captaincy job, after 50-odd games, has found out what kind of leader I am in terms of a person. It's made me feel far more confident in terms of talking to a group in any situation. But it has taken me a long time to feel like I've been doing it naturally.

You're never as good as people say you are and you're never as bad as people say you are. You're always in the middle at some stage.

As cricketers we're judged on the average we have from being a 21-year-old who's just come into international cricket to the day you retire.

The captaincy thing is brilliant, and I love it. But I didn't start off playing cricket to captain England. I wanted to score runs and stuff.

If I was a second-team player, I probably would have gone to uni.

Sheep are never going to talk to you about cricket.

No disrespect to county cricket but when you're playing for England it is the ultimate, it is what has always driven me to push myself above and beyond.

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I like being outside and I like hard work.