70 Facts About Dominic Cork

Dominic Gerald Cork was born on 7 August 1971 and is a former English county and international cricketer.

Dominic Cork made 69 appearances for England from 1992 to 2002.

Dominic Cork played for Derbyshire for 13 years, before leaving under controversial circumstances to join Lancashire in 2004.

Dominic Cork was released by Hampshire at the end of the 2011 season, shortly thereafter he announced his retirement on Sky Sports News on 22 September 2011.

Dominic Cork was born the youngest of three boys in Newcastle-under-Lyme to Mary and Gerald Dominic Cork, both Catholics of West Country origin.

Dominic Cork was educated at St Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, before continuing his education at Newcastle-under-Lyme College.

Dominic Cork played six further Youth Tests to 1990 and five further Youth ODIs to 1990.

Dominic Cork took one wicket in the match, that of Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Dominic Cork played infrequently for England over the coming seasons, playing just two ODIs each in 1993 and 1994, against Australia and South Africa respectively.

Dominic Cork finished the series with 26 wickets at an average of 25.42.

Dominic Cork struck his maiden Test half century, making an unbeaten 56 in the 4th Test.

Dominic Cork had a productive time in South Africa during their winter tour, playing five Tests and six ODIs during the tour.

Dominic Cork was similarly successful in the ODI series with the ball, England's second highest wicket-taker behind Derbyshire teammate Phil DeFreitas, with 10 wickets at 26.40 a piece.

Dominic Cork was selected at part of England's squad for the 1996 World Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Later in 1996, Dominic Cork had a less successful period in Test cricket, taking 10 wickets during India's three match Test tour at an average of 36.90.

Dominic Cork's batting did fare better, scoring 59 in the first Test and he led England to a series winning victory in the 3rd Test, putting on 76 runs with John Crawley to remind people of the batting side of his game.

Dominic Cork fared even worse in the ODI series though, taking just a single wicket throughout at the cost of 145 runs.

Dominic Cork described how he was not in the right frame of mind to play international cricket at the time and how his performances were affected by this, further commenting he had no idea when running in to bowl what delivery he would send down to the batsman.

Dominic Cork was prevented from answering Boycott back when injury prevented him from playing during most of the 1997 English season.

Dominic Cork later played in England's only Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval where he claimed the wickets of Marvan Atapattu and Romesh Kaluwitharana in the Sri Lankan first-innings, in a match the tourists won by 10 wickets.

Dominic Cork played in the opening two Tests at the Gabba and The WACA, claiming only 4 wickets in all at an average of 41.25.

In 2000, Dominic Cork was recalled to the England Test squad for the West Indies tour of England, where he featured in four Test matches.

Dominic Cork was in fantastic form with the ball during the series, having arguably his best returns in Test cricket.

Dominic Cork took 20 wickets at an impressive average of 12.25, in partnership with Darren Gough and Andy Caddick, against a West Indian team which was in decline, but that still had talented players like Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Dominic Cork was later ruled out of the winter tour of Pakistan due to a back injury.

Dominic Cork featured in the Pakistani tour of England in 2001 and after four years he was recalled to play in the ODI series involving Pakistan and Australia.

Dominic Cork had limited success upon his recall, taking six wickets at an average of 35.83.

Dominic Cork later played in the 2nd Test of the 2001 Ashes at Lord's, scoring 24 runs in England first-innings before being dismissed by Jason Gillespie.

Dominic Cork was ineffective with the ball, taking just a single wicket in the match, that of Steve Waugh in the Australians first-innings.

Dominic Cork later played a single Test against Sri Lanka in 2002 and played his final Tests in two matches against India.

Dominic Cork had little success and had seemed to lose his ability to outswing the ball, resorting to bowling the bouncer more often and increased sledging toward opponents.

Dominic Cork first played county cricket for Staffordshire in the Minor Counties Championship against Bedfordshire, aged just 17.

Dominic Cork played three further fixtures for Staffordshire in 1989, and the following season he played his only MCCA Knockout Trophy match for Staffordshire, which came against Shropshire.

Dominic Cork made his County Championship debut against Leicestershire in Derbyshire's final County Championship match in the same season.

Dominic Cork's victims included future Test player Nick Knight and Pakistani international Saleem Malik.

In 1993, Dominic Cork scored his maiden first-class century against Gloucestershire, making 104 runs.

The coming seasons saw Dominic Cork become a regular feature in the England team, limiting his appearances for Derbyshire.

Dominic Cork scored 280 runs in one-day cricket and took 23 wickets at just under an average of 30.

Dominic Cork captained Derbyshire in their 1998 NatWest Trophy final defeat against Lancashire at Lord's.

Dominic Cork carried out his threat and asked to be released from the remainder of the four seasons left on his contract.

Six months after the dispute began, the Derbyshire committee gave into Dominic Cork's demands allowing him more say over playing matters, coupled with the departure of Andy Hayhurst and Harold Rhodes from administration positions at the county, both of whom Dominic Cork cited as making his captaincy untenable.

Dominic Cork was awarded a benefit year in 2001, with some of his benefit events being boycotted by the Derbyshire committee; this was a season in which Cork's appearances were limited to just a handful by his England duties and return to the England one-day side.

In 2002, Dominic Cork played more regularly for Derbyshire, but pressure began to build on his captaincy with Derbyshire performing poorly in List A cricket and ending the season 6th in the County Championship, although he did take 64 wickets at 18.90.

Dominic Cork branded the response of the England and Wales Cricket Board's chief executive, Tim Lamb, as "pathetic".

Dominic Cork formed key bowling partnerships with teammates Phil DeFreitas, Devon Malcolm and Ole Mortensen.

Dominic Cork has cited Kim Barnett, the first captain he played under at Derbyshire, as the best captain he has played for, regarding him as his "guide and mentor".

The county were promoted back to Division One the following season, a season in which Dominic Cork took 46 first-class wickets at 26, and 17 List A wickets at an average 27.47.

In 2006, Lancashire mounted a challenge for the County Championship, with Dominic Cork taking 42 wickets at an average of 25.50.

Opening the bowling with Kyle Hogg, Dominic Cork did not take any Sussex wickets, but did run-out Richard Montgomerie and Carl Hopkinson.

Seemingly falling down the pecking order at Lancashire, Dominic Cork did not feature in any one-day matches in the 2008 and only played a handful of County Championship matches.

Lancashire captain Stuart Law stated that he had not been consulted about the decision and wanted Dominic Cork to stay at the club.

The club released a statement saying Dominic Cork was released "with the longer-term development of the playing staff in mind and to allow the side to evolve".

The decision to release Dominic Cork was criticised by Lancashire and England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.

Dominic Cork had left Derbyshire after the first season of Twenty20 cricket, so with Lancashire he had more exposure to the format.

Dominic Cork scored 259 runs for Lancashire at an average of 13.63, with a high score of 28.

Dominic Cork's first season was a qualified success, with him taking 62 wickets in all formats.

In October it was confirmed that Dominic Cork had signed a one-year contract extension taking him into the 2011 season, which would be his 21st in first-class cricket.

Dominic Cork was given the captaincy for the 2011 season on a permanent basis.

Dominic Cork hit his 10,000th run in Hampshires' County Championship match against Yorkshire at Headingley, off the bowling of Ajmal Shahzad.

However Hampshire saw a turn around in fortunes, be it in the Friends Life t20, with Dominic Cork captaining them to five wins out of five, guiding them to their second successive finals day.

Dominic Cork was chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1996, alongside England teammates Angus Fraser and Dermot Reeve.

Dominic Cork married his first wife Jane when he was 22, but the pressures of being away on international duty led to his marriage ending in divorce.

Dominic Cork has one son from that marriage, Greg, who made his debut for Derbyshire in 2014, playing four Twenty20 matches after joining the county's Academy.

Dominic Cork is a lifelong supporter of Stoke City FC.

Dominic Cork was one of the people caught up in the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team, when he was commentating on Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan for the Pakistan Television Corporation.

Dominic Cork criticised Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt following his remarks that match referee Chris Broad had fabricated elements of the attack.

In February 2010 Dominic Cork made his debut as a summariser on Test Match Special when England toured Bangladesh.

In December 2010, Dominic Cork was named as one of the contestants for series 6 of Dancing on Ice with Finnish figure skater Alexandra Schauman.

Dominic Cork was eliminated in week four after being voted off by his six of his fellow contestants, following a skate-off with presenter Jeff Brazier.

Dominic Cork's father was taken to hospital after suffering a heart attack in July 2011, while receiving treatment in hospital he was diagnosed with cancer and given just three weeks to live.