Alastair Cook strides out to bat at Chelmsford wearing his old helmet

During which innings did he use the new format?

Scoring runs or not!

I used a helmet once on a dodgy pitch at Wembley, was out cheaply and never wore one before and since.

I regard this as a whimsical behavior which Alastair Cook is showing. The latest British Safety Standard BS7928:13 specification for head protectors for cricketeers states several tests made that possibly his good old helmet doesn't comply. Safety measures are the highest priority, but the comfort is also an important part of safety. Anyway, eventually He'll do what he wants with enforced adoption or not.

He wore the new helmet in both innings.

Us cricketers are a superstitious bunch. When my beloved Gray Nicolls twin scoop bit the dust, I switched over to a Duncan Fearnley. It just didn't feel right in my hands. Needless to say, I strode out into the middle, was out first ball and never used that bat again.

With bats I think it is more feel and balance rather than superstition, for me anyway.

I trundled out with the 4s last season, broke my newly refurbished bat and borrowed some substandard 2.9 bat and I played three shots before hitting the ball!

I did not realise my bat was 3.6!

Anyway I managed 500 runs at roughly 40 but got used to a lighter bat.

I never thought I would purchase another bat, and it was hysterics to my kids when I did, but I actually got  a 2.8 GN F18 SE.

I am a GN man but did like County as well.

But I think generally cricketers are superstitious as you indicated.

Why us sport any different to other firms of industry though? If I worked on a building site but refused to wear a hard hat, hi-vis vest and steel toe capped boots, then I wouldn't be allowed on the site to work.

So if the ECB says cricketers need to wear this, this and this, but Cook or any other player refuses to, then why should he be allowed to play?

They need to remain safe

Fortunately, as Mail mention thread, as these new helmets are now compulsory starting at the colt level, this will not be a bone of contention with future generations.

Didn't MLB recently try to introduce newer, safer helmets that were met with mixed emotions? I believe that the majority of players didn't want to use the newer helmets. The only players I can recall wearing the new helmets were David Wright and Francisco Cervelli.

Thank you mate. I did not realise there are so many options for the incipient regulations. I optate the sport to be as safe as possible, but like Cook verbally expressed, it might be less safe with the incipient regulations as you can't trace the ball as well as with the old design.

Please stop re-posting other people's comments and passing them off as your own. This chap needs a talking too or better yet, taken out to the woodshed for some licks. This is not on.

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Cook seems to be adjusting to life with the new helmet as he put together another fifty for Essex. Can Cook surpass Steve Waugh this year? To score 963 runs in 7 Tests is probably asking too much, though if not this year, by early next year, Cook will move on pass Tugga and up into the top 10 list of most Test runs.