Derbyshire chairman Chris Grant said the findings came from market research conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) into the game's popularity.
"More kids these days can recognise a WWE wrestler than the England captain," Grant told BBC Radio Derby.
"Only a third could recognise Alastair and I think we've got to improve that."
He added: "That was a fascinating statistic they gave us."
English cricket is poised to get a new eight-team Twenty20 competition, which, if approved, could start as early as 2018, in an attempt to boost the profile of the sport.
The tournament would run alongside the existing 18-team T20 Blast and would be held at city-based Test grounds, but Grant is unfazed by the potential impact on one of English cricket's smallest counties.
"I think a lot of the negativity surrounds the fact that people feel that this will be the death of Derbyshire County Cricket Club," he said.
"I really don't see it that way. I think actually it could lead to 18 counties becoming stronger, a lot stronger and certainly more financially sustainable.
"The devil will be in the detail, there's a lot of work at the ECB still to be done. We don't know where these teams will be based, we don't know what they'll be called.
"In principle I think it's the right way to go and gives Derbyshire the best chance of preserving their first-class status long-term."
Encouraging people to play and watch cricket should be a priority for those involved in taking the game into a new era, according to Grant.
"The game has got some real challenges, participation is falling really dramatically and we've got to unlock a new audience," he continued.
"At the moment there are 990,000 people in this country who have attended a game in the recent past, but there are 9.4m people who describe themselves as a cricket follower.
"We're not really unlocking that extra 8.5m, and I think we've got to come up with something fresh and new to actually get them involved and get them to come and attend a game."
WWE wrestlers are more recognisable than England Test captain Alastair Cook, according to new research.