There’s a fine line between fearless and reckless cricket ... it’s a bit blurred in our Test team
JONATHAN TROTT IS ABOUT TO CALL TIME ON HIS PLAYING CAREER AND BECOME A SCOUT FOR ENGLAND SELECTORS
Jonathan trott ponders a career that features three momentous ashes victories with England, but then a fourth series in australia that ended cruelly and brutally with his premature return home.
‘I’ve had some amazing highs but I’ve had some real low times as well,’ said trott as he looked back on his journey from Cape town via Birmingham to become a key member of one of the greatest England teams. ‘I’ve had the full spectrum of emotions.
‘I wrestled with the game when I retired from international cricket. that year was tough but the last couple have been good. am I as good a player as I was? Definitely not. But am I working as hard as I once did to play for England and be the best I could be? Definitely not as well.
‘So I’m at peace with that and with cricket. If I don’t get runs now it isn’t as big a train crash as it was. I’ve come full circle and I’m comfortable in my own skin.’
It is a happy and relaxed trott who is sitting in his local in the suburb of England’s second city he has long since made his home. he is a man at peace with his decision to retire from all cricket at the end of this summer.
‘ It’s important not to hang around until someone says, “It’s time for you to go, trotty”,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘It’s best people are asking me why I’m retiring rather than wait until they are asking why I am not. It’s right for Warwickshire, too, because they have a lot of young batters and it would leave a big gap if Ian Bell and I went at the same time.
‘I started when I was 18 and now I’m 37, so I’ve had a good run. If anyone had told me when I moved here what I’d achieve, I would have laughed. there are things I’d like to have done better, like played more tests and scored more hundreds. Playing for England is like a drug. once you get a taste of it you want more, but the biggest thing was playing in the team I did.’
What a team it was, that side under andrew Strauss and andy Flower who went to the top of the test rankings in 2011 and had a spell at the top of the one- day list, too. trott was the dependable cog in the England wheel; the unspectacular accumulator with foibles at the crease but who, above all, did so much of the hard work so others could flourish.
‘It’s not so much my stats I look back on, it was the team I was a part of,’ trott said. ‘I played with great players. It only hit me how great the other day when I saw a list of England’s top runscorers.
‘our big four are all up there: Strauss, Cook, Bell and Pietersen. I still think Kev is the best I played with. then look at the bowlers — Swann, Broad and anderson. add Matt Prior, probably the best keeper-batsman we have had. that’s eight of the best England players. they were all in my team. I just chipped in a bit.’
he does himself a disservice. trott, the son of an English father and South african mother, was integral to that team, a no 3 good enough to score nine hundreds in 52 tests and average 44. he also averaged 51 in one-day cricket.
But it was all to come crashing down spectacularly in australia in 2013, when trott was forced to fly home after the first test in Brisbane with an illness later diagnosed as situational anxiety.
Graeme Swann would quit mid- series after the ashes had been lost, then came the sacking of Kevin Pietersen and its bitter aftermath. It was a sad end for a special team.
‘I look back on the period and it’s a bit of a blur now,’ says trott. ‘there was so much cricket going on, culminating in back-to-back ashes. that didn’t help us.
‘Boards will have to be careful they look after players when they’re seeing how much profit can be made. We seem to be playing australia all the time. We shouldn’t dilute a special rivalry.
‘Every time you turn the telly on, England are playing somewhere. It’s quite manic.’
he returned home from Brisbane facing a battle to save his career and, more importantly, restore his mental health. It culminated with a brief return to tests in the Caribbean. ‘once I’d been through the wringer, with people questioning my commitment to the England team and with the scrutiny I was under, to come through that, battle back and still have the desire to play for England is one of my biggest achievements,’ he says.
‘Was I the same player? no, because there was more scarring than I’d anticipated, but to get back there and earn my 50th cap was something I’m very proud of. It took me 18 months to sort myself out, but if I see a challenge I’ll pretty much run straight at it.
‘ I was lucky my path crossed with ( psychiatrist) Steve Peters because things might have turned out very differently. as soon as I met him I knew I’d be fine. there are still some days that are not as good as others, but I can manage them.
‘that’s the key. It’s how you handle it and I’m fortunate to have good people around me.’
trott, still good enough to score three hundreds for Warwickshire in June alone, is giving up playing without a full-time job to go to, but wants to stay in the game in coaching and the media.
his first role will be as one of national selector Ed Smith’s scouts now Steve rhodes has left to become Bangladesh coach. and trott already sounds like a pundit when he talks about the England side who will be taking on India in five tests.
‘this is a test team in transition,’ he says. ‘ We’ve only won one game in the last nine. the one-day side are very good, but the way they play has crept into test cricket. there’s a fine line between fearless and reckless cricket and that line has become a bit blurred in our test team.
‘If it’s seaming around, players are still going for their shots and saying, “that’s the way I play”. I like that confidence but I’d like them to be able to play two or three different ways. If you’re 50 for four you should play differently to if you’re 300 for four.
‘that’s the mindset I’d like to get across as a coach. these guys are so talented and they shouldn’t be selling their wickets cheaply.’
trott was never guilty of that but insists he has no problem with how he was perceived.
‘I didn’t mind being in the background,’ said trott. ‘We had some big characters and that suited me perfectly because I could just get on with my business. I know I was appreciated by my coach, the captain and the fans. that’s all that mattered to me.’