Alastair Cook fears for future of Test cricket as he closes in on Allan Border record

This will be his 13th summer as a Test cricketer and his 16th overall. He made his Championship debut the summer T20 was launched and, all being well, at Lord?s next month, he should equal Allan Border?s record for the most successive Test matches, 153. Cook remembers playing alongside the man charged with deciding whether he matches Border?s record, England?s new national selector, Ed Smith. He has been a constant as the game has changed rapidly and radically.Three days from the start of another summer, Cook is chatting and playing cricket with schoolkids as he launches the Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week with the charity Chance To Shine, which takes place from the June 18-22. "They?d been told well,? he jokes, when asked if any of them knew who he was, a nod to the ECB?s infamous nugget of marketing research that found more children recognised the wrestler John Cena than Cook. But then again, none of his 12,000 Test runs have been scored on free TV. However, the kids are in thrall of him, asking for autographs and giving him a guard of honour on arrival. ?It?s daunting,? he says of his responsibilities as a flag-bearer for a sport that constantly convinces itself that it?s in crisis. ?Those memories of sitting in assemblies. But if I?d been eight years old and an England cricketer had come to the school I?d have been, like? gawp. It?s weird being that bloke who can do it.?Cook concedes his fears for the future of long-form cricket and wonders whether his like, the long-former, will be seen again.