page_title: Dominic Cork
section_title: Hampshire
hierarchical_section_title: Dominic Cork / Domestic career / Hampshire
caption_attribution_description: English: Dominic Cork (left) lifts aloft the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy.
context_page_description: Dominic Gerald Cork is a former English county and international cricketer. Cork was a right-handed lower-order batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium, and was renowned for his swing and seam control. In 1995, he took the best figures for an England bowler on Test debut, with 7 for 43 in the second innings against the West Indies.
  Making his début in first-class cricket for Derbyshire in 1990, he was selected to play for England in 1992, aged 21. He made 69 appearances for England from 1992 to 2002. Cork played for Derbyshire for 13 years, before leaving under controversial circumstances to join Lancashire in 2004. Leaving Lancashire after the 2008 season, Cork joined Hampshire, who he played for from 2009 to 2011, acting as captain for much of the 2010 and 2011 seasons. While at Hampshire he won the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy, and captained the county to victory in the 2010 Friends Provident t20. He 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. His popular nickname is "Corky".
context_section_description: On 2 October 2008 he joined Hampshire after signing a two-year deal, making his debut against Worcestershire in the 2009 County Championship at the Rose Bowl.  Having been a key part of the Hampshire squad throughout the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy, where he played a part in guiding them to the final.  In the final Cork helped Hampshire to a 6 wicket win.  Cork was man-of-the-match, 16 years after his man-of-the-match performance for Derbyshire in the 1993 Benson & Hedges Cup final.  Cork took figures of 4/41, including the wickets of England wicket-keeper Matt Prior for a second ball duck and Pakistan international Yasir Arafat.  Cork's first season was a qualified success, with him taking 62 wickets in all formats.  His first season form played a part in helping Hampshire to a late season rally after being within the Division One relegation zone for most of the season.
  With Dimitri Mascarenhas injured for the large part of the 2010 season, Cork took over the captaincy when Nic Pothas stood down following a run of poor results.  During the 2010 season, Cork led the side to victory in the 2010 Friends Provident t20 finals day at the home of Hampshire cricket, the Rose Bowl.  During the final itself he took the wickets of Jos Buttler and Arul Suppiah, as well as hitting West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard in the eye with a bouncer, which led to Pollard needing hospital treatment.  Cork was praised for his sportsmanship during the incident.  Following the match, Cork was offered a new one-year deal by Hampshire, a deal he stated he was likely to sign but a decision he would still nonetheless consider over the coming weeks.  In October it was confirmed that Cork had signed a one-year contract extension taking him into the 2011 season, which would be his 21st in first-class cricket.  Cork was also given the captaincy for the 2011 season on a permanent basis.
  Provided Cork had a successful 2011 season, then he would be set to reach the all-rounders' double of 1,000 wickets and 10,000 runs in first-class cricket.  Cork hit his 10,000th run in Hampshires' County Championship match against Yorkshire at Headingley, off the bowling of Ajmal Shahzad.  Under Cork's captaincy, Hampshire started poorly in the County Championship, where they sat second bottom without any wins, while in one-day cricket they have fared little better.  However Hampshire saw a turn around in fortunes, be it in the Friends Life t20, with Cork captaining them to five wins out of five, guiding them to their second successive finals day.  On finals day, they lost in the semi-final against Somerset.  Cork's form though continued to dip as the season progressed, towards the end of the 2011 season he took a break to look after his father who had been diagnosed with cancer and given a matter of weeks to live.  Following Twenty20 finals days, he paid an emotional tribute to his father who died days before.  On 10 September, it was announced that Hampshire would be releasing Cork at the end of the 2011 season.  A fortnight later he announced his retirement from the game after 21 seasons in first-class cricket, with Cork falling just short of 1,000 first-class wickets; he ended his first-class career instead with 989.
caption: Cork (left) and Sean Ervine hold aloft the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy at Lord's
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