Cook calls for calm

Alastair Cook becomes the first of five victims for Jerome Taylor as the collapse begins in Jamaica

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Alastair Cook has urged for perspective to be employed in the wake of England’s second-innings collapse to West Indies at Sabina Park.

Cook, unofficial vice-captain for the four-Test series, was the first man to go as England slipped to 51 all out and an innings-and-23-run defeat on the fourth afternoon in Jamaica.

The same batting unit collapsed in Adelaide for 129 during the 2006-07 Ashes, while four of the top six in Jamaica were also in the XI shot out by Sri Lanka for 81 in Galle last winter.

"Everyone realises what playing for England means, and there are a lot of good players coming up," said Cook. "If you don't perform then you know what is going to happen.

"But it is not a time for rushed decisions. There are some very good players, some great players in our side, and things like this have happened before in cricket.

"We cannot act too hastily. The players involved are ultimately responsible, but we have got to take it on the chin and hope we can get a fresh start when we get to Antigua (for the second Test).

"If it happens again, then things have to change. But those are three isolated incidents over three years, so it is not as though it is happening every week."

In the absence of a head coach, following the departure of Peter Moores, captain Andrew Strauss has urged his players to take personal responsibility for their performances - and that is something Cook reiterates.

"When things go like that we have to hold our hands up and say 'that wasn't good enough'," Cook admitted.

"We are not reinventing the wheel - that is always the way it has been.

"When there is a focal point like a head coach then maybe responsibility gets shifted on to other people, but here the players must take full responsibility."

Cook unfurls a back-foot cut in his last Test match hundred, 118 against Sri Lanka in Galle last winter

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Cook dismissed suggestions that the team became distracted by the Indian Premier League auction midway through the Test as “an absolute load of rubbish”.

"When you're out there in the middle you're not focused on anything else that's happening," he said. "But momentum is such a strange thing.

"We were just behind the eight ball after the first innings, with them having a lead of 70-odd, and I have never experienced that happening before," he added, referring to England being dismissed in just 33 overs.

"It has obviously happened before in other sides, but we hope it won't happen again. The one thing we must do is stay together as a side. You have to retain your self-belief as individual players.

"You go through lots of ups and downs. But ultimately if you don't believe in yourself out there you will not score runs or take wickets.

"Believing is the one thing that keeps you going in the tough times."

Cook’s seven Test hundreds before his 23rd birthday was previously bettered by only Sir Donald Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar at the same age.

He has not scored a century in 23 Test innings, since the Galle Test last December. But the Essex left-hander has contributed eight fifties in that time.

"It is a monkey I would like to get rid of as soon as I can," said Cook.

"I honestly can't think of one little thing - form in terms of every player fluctuates, and it is how you come out the other end - but it is down to me to try to change that.

"There is no better feeling than scoring Test hundreds; if you could do it every day you would."