The pair are former England captains as well as Essex legends, each having played more than 20 years for the county; for two decades Gooch was England's all-time leading run-scorer in Test cricket with 8,900 runs, until he was overtaken in 2015 by Cook, who still holds the record at 12,472
Wednesday 10 April 2024 21:41, UK
Sir Alastair Cook and Graham Gooch have been honoured by their former county as Essex CCC have renamed two stands after them.
The River End at The County Ground in Chelmsford is now the Sir Alastair Cook End, while the The Hayes Close End becomes the Graham Gooch End.
The pair are former England captains as well as Essex legends, each having played more than 20 years for the county - Gooch from 1974 to 1997 and Cook from 2003 to 2023, announcing his retirement last October at the age of 38.
For two decades, Gooch was England's all-time leading run-scorer in Test cricket with 8,900 runs, until he was overtaken in 2015 by Cook, who still holds the record at 12,472.
John Stephenson, chief executive at Essex Cricket, said: "It's a real honour to rename the bowling ends at The Cloud County Ground after two legends of Essex cricket.
"We're a club with a long history, and it's important that we recognise that. The renaming of our ground ends allows us to pay tribute to two of our finest players of all time.
"For their respective contributions to our club, I can't think of many people more deserving of this honour than Graham and Sir Alastair."
Gooch played 391 first-class games for Essex, scoring 30,701 runs at an average of 51.77. Cook scored 11,337 runs in 158 first-class matches for the county, averaging 45.16.
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