ENGLAND MISSING A PLAYER OF TRESCO’S TALENTS
More than any other cricketer in the modern era still able to ply their trade in the middle, England have missed Marcus Trescothick. There is no doubt that his decision, in 2006, to withdraw from the intense churn of international duty due to mental health issues, has denied the country a sparkling opening batsmen. Happily, he was not lost to cricket entirely, with Somerset keeping him close enough to the point where he has now scored more hundreds for them than any player in their 142-year old history.
The latest of them, his 50th for the county, came against Warwickshire last week. Unusually for him, it counted for little as his team followed-on. Yet he did not allow the disappointment to undermine him and just to make sure his opponents were denied victory, he made an unbeaten 46 in the second innings as well.
Reassuringly solid at the top of the order, Trescothick has always possessed a power and range of stroke that can dispirit a bowler in an instant. His ball-striking, especially in his pomp, is up there with the hardest hitters in the game, as infectious to the crowd as the boyish grin that spreads across his face once a job is well done.
On one vivid occasion, at the Wanderers in January 2005, he hit the ball as hard as any in the game. The series against South Africa was poised at 1-1 and England, eight runs in arrears after the first innings (411 played 419), had moved to a lead of 189 with five wickets remaining by the start of the final day.
Trescothick was still there, unbeaten on 101, though what followed was rarely seen in Test matches back then unless Viv Richards or Ian Botham had their hackles up. I have seen both those men in full flow, as well as Graham Gooch, but I have never seen the ball struck harder than at the Wanderers that day.
The altitude of Johannesburg (6,000 feet above sea level) may have contributed, but Tresco struck South Africa into submission as his next 79 runs came in a whirl off just 89 balls. It was a blitzkrieg that sucked thealready thin air out of the stadium and allowed Michael Vaughan to declare just before lunch.
What followed was an unexpected victory for England as they bowled out South Africa in 59 overs, Matthew Hoggard to the fore with seven for 61. Adjudicators awarded him the man of the match, but it should have been shared with Trescothick. His 180, apart from giving England a decent lead to play with, utterly broke South Africa like a butterfly on a wheel.
I saw Trescothick the day after that knock walking with his wife in the vast shopping complex at Sandton City, and just had to congratulate him on such a wonderful innings and spectacle. He seemed surprised that people should be making such a fuss, and while he was gracious in accepting praise you
I have seen both Viv Richards and Ian Botham in full flow, but I have never seen the ball struck harder than at the Wanderers that day
could see it made him uncomfortable. After all, he reasoned, that is what he was there to do and why the selectors had picked him in the first place.
Trescothick’s battles with mental health have been well documented in a book, Coming back to me, that he wrote with Peter Hayter of this parish. What perhaps surprised many who had watched the player was how such a wonderfully uncomplicated batsman could be so afflicted. But it takes a ton of hard work and an ability to keep pressure hidden to appear so natural, while those who grew up with him playing at Somerset will attest to what a deep thinker he is about the game, something those of casual acquaintance would not have picked up.
Before his England debut against the West Indies in the summer of 2000, he spent ages with Somerset’s bowling coach, Kevin Shine, practising the leave from both over and around the wicket. It was something he felt would be important against a tall, accurate bowling attack comprising Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, and he was right. He opened the innings and made 66. He must have left a lot of balls alone, too, given that Alec Stewart, who batted at five, reached his hundred while Trescothick was still on 60.
Experts talk about triggers for things like anxiety or depression. The first time he found he was unable to cope was on England’s tour to India early in 2006. His innings, in a tour game at Vadodara, just ground to a halt in the middle. A few hours later, unbeknown to most of the press, he was on a flight home, his mind in meltdown.
Yet it was the tour before Christmas, to Pakistan, which had probably laid the ground for his departure from India six weeks later. On that trip, he was given the huge honour of captaining his country after Vaughan damaged a knee in a practice match. It was the first Test of the series, in Multan, and Trescothick made a superb 193 in England’s first innings to put them in a commanding position.
The problem was that the occasion coincided with an emergency at home after Trescothick’s father-in-law fell off a ladder. It was a serious injury and, with hindsight, he should have gone home to support his wife and her family. But with England already depleted through Vaughan’s injury, Trescothick did what he thought was the honourable thing, though when England lost a match they should have won, he was overcome by a sense of guilt for not putting family first.
Perhaps worse, still, he stayed on tour, something he was unable to manage on his next two trips overseas to India and Australia, his return from the latter, in November 2006, sealing his fate as an England cricketer.
It would have been easy at that point for Trescothick to become a victim and walk away from the game he loved and has always had an enormous talent for. Instead, he sacrificed further England glory for a reduced stake in the game with cricket with Somerset, and you suspect himself and his family, the beneficiaries.