CRAIG COOK IN TEAM GB

NEWS Wednesday 12th February 2014, 11:15am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

As anticipated, Scotwaste Monarchs’ no. 1 Craig Cook has been named by new team manager Alun Rossiter in his first selection, the team for the Great Britain v Rest of the World match which is this year’s Ben Fund Bonanza at Leicester on Sunday 9th March (2pm).

For sure this year Craig will want to be making a bigger mark on the international stage, following his dominance in the Premier League last season. It’s a good thing, then, that this first match will be on a track where he is the track record holder!

The side is Tai Woffinden, Lewis Bridger, Chris Harris, Danny King, Craig Cook, Kyle Howarth, Ritchie Worrall, Ben Barker with Craig taking the important no. 5 position. The Rest of the World side hasn’t been named yet.

It will be the opening meeting of the 2014 season. Rossiter was at pains to stress that this is his first side of the new era, the door isn’t closed to any rider.

He said “There’s a lot of negativity around, too much negativity in my eyes, we’re not as bad as people make us out to be. We just need to be a little bit more upbeat about ourselves, a bit more positive.

“I like to be upbeat otherwise there is no point in doing it. I’ve got to sit down with the chairman, we’ve already spoken a bit, but I want to discuss what we can do. I want to do something as a team but I need to know what the boundaries are, what we can and can’t do.

“I’ve given Tai the captaincy, I just thought that Bomber didn’t have the best of seasons last year and so I’ve taken the pressure off him to let him focus on himself a little bit. He’s back in the Grand Prix and now he can worry about getting himself in the right frame of mind instead of worrying about everybody else.

“I’ve not been to Leicester so the Ben Fund meeting will be a new experience for me. I’ve heard good things about it. I think the team we will be tracking has potential, it has a bit of youth and a bit of experience, and an important thing to say is that the door isn’t shut to anybody else.

“This is my first official fixture and I want to stress that I’m not excluding anyone. “