Flower made me a world-class cricketer: Cook

London, (ANI): England opener Alastair Cook believes that coach Andy Flower should take the credit for making him a world class cricketer.

The Essex opener will captain England in Bangladesh next month following Andrew Strauss's decision to skip the tour of the sub-continent.

Flower took the young Englishman under his wing at Essex back in 2002. The duo built up a fine partnership over a four-year period at county level with Cook benefiting from Flower's wealth of experience on the international scene with Zimbabwe, the Daily Express reports.

Cook, 25, insists that the invaluable time spent in the middle learning from Flower gave him the confidence to improve and establish himself as a regular in the England side.

"He always called me maestro but he was the real class one. When you're a raw 19-year-old like I was, Andy had confidence in me and that rubbed off. We had a race to 1,000 runs at Essex on two occasions but he pipped me both times when I was on 999. I still owe him money," said Cook.

"He always wanted the younger players to do well. Looking back now, you can see that when we batted together he gave me lots of advice," he added.

Having been appointed as vice-captain last year, Cook will now work alongside Flower again when he captains England in their two Tests against Bangladesh.