Trott didn`t `con` anyone

94
Daily Mail, Friday, April 18, 2014
CRICKET BOMBSHELL
fall of an
england
stalwart
Nov 21, 2013: The first Test
in Brisbane begins. Trott
scores only 19 in two
innings, falling both times to
Australia left-arm speedster
Mitchell Johnson (right).
Nov 25, 2013: Quits the Ashes tour. England
insist his departure is down to a stress-related
illness. Trott says: ‘I don’t feel it is right
that I’m playing knowing that I’m not 100
per cent and I cannot currently operate at
the level I have done in the past.’
Mar 6, 2014: Trott announces he is ready to
return to action and targets Warwickshire’s
pre-season friendly against Gloucestershire
as well as an England recall. He also insists
he was suffering from burnout and not a
stress-related illness in Australia.
trott didn’t
Fragile batsman is still
not well — and sceptics
need to accept that
J
ONATHAN TROTT was not conning anyone.
Neither did Trott do a runner, as Michael
Vaughan dared suggest, when he left the Ashes
tour last winter. He was unwell, and he remains
unwell. He just can’t tick a box on a medical
form and satisfy the doubters who demand he’s more
specific about the problems he is enduring.
All he knows, from what I understand, is that he is still suffering
with the same anxieties he has experienced in the past. And
not just during that Brisbane Test last November but on other
occasions over the past few years.
More to the point, he knows these
problems present themselves only
when he’s playing cricket. When
he’s facing that bowler or trying
to take that catch, whether he’s
playing for England or turning out
for Warwickshire.
As he said in a recently-aired
interview on Sky, it is not a fear of
failure that weighs heavily on his
athletic shoulders but a desire to
succeed. He puts enormous presChief Sports Reporter
sure on himself to be the best —
Kevin Pietersen said as much only
last week — and when he was
serious mental health
heralded the world’s finest crickissue and treated him
eter in 2011 he achieved that goal.
with sensitivity and
But the pressure to remain there
sympathy.
has clearly taken its toll, and no
‘He was struggling for
matter how talented a cricketer
cricketing reasons and
Trott might be, it has contributed
not mental — and there is a
to making him unwell.
massive difference.’
Of course, it’s not as simple as
A recent article in the Financial
that. When I interviewed Dr Steve
Times exposed the amateur psyPeters recently, he became rather
chology informing Vaughan’s view.
exasperated when I pressed him to
Prompted by an alarming number
explain exactly what it is he does
of suicides among executives in the
with sportsmen suffering from
financial world, the FT drew on the
mental issues such as Trott’s.
expertise of Dr Mark
‘You’re asking me to condense 30
Winwood, the direcyears of expertise into a one-hour
tor of psychological
interview,’ said the consultant
services at insurer
psychiatrist who has worked with
Axa PPP’s specialist
Ronnie O’Sullivan and Victoria
health
services
Pendleton and is now an integral
division.
part of Brendan Rodgers’ team
‘People have been
at Liverpool. ‘It’s an extremely
living on adrenaline
complex issue.’
for the past few years,’
And that’s the thing. It’s complex.
s a i d D r Wi n w o o d .
So complex, in fact, that those who
‘After a long time runsuffer with such problems struggle
ning on empty, all of a
to understand what is going on in
sudden they become
their own minds.
very, very unwell.’ The
It’s why they need a specialist like
FT then stated: ‘It has
Peters, who can hopefully help
a name: burnout.’
them to understand and so provide
One only had to
them with the tools to get better.
watch Trott in that
interview to realise this
was not someone trying to hide behind an
rott has been seeing a
excuse. It was a man
psychologist and he
who was desperate to
doesn’t think he is sufferreturn to playing proing from depression.
fessional cricket, desThe best he could do in that Sky
perate to continue supinterview was call it ‘burnout’, while
porting his family by
concluding that back-to -back
doing his job.
Ashes series probably did him no
But within that
favours. And ‘burnout’ wasn’t even
desperation the human
his term. That was the best way the
fragility of the man
ECB medical staff could describe
was obvious.
his issues after four months of
When the ECB informed reporters
consultation.
in Australia that he was suffering
It was met with great scepticism
from a ‘stress-related illness’, Trott
by some. Vaughan concluded Trott
was already on a plane home.
was suffering from no such mental
But he returned in dire need of a
issues at all.
break and only after four months
‘I feel a little bit conned,’ declared
without so much as picking up a
the former England captain in a
cricket bat did he attempt to return
newspaper article. ‘We were told
to work.
Jonathan’s problems in Australia
As he has quickly discovered,
were a stress-related illness he had
however, not a great deal has
suffered for years. We were allowed
changed. He is still struggling, even
to believe he was struggling with a
EXCLUSIVE
MATT
LAWTON
T
Highs and lows: Jonathan Trott collects his ICC Cricketer of the Year award in 2011 with Alastair Cook,
who won the Test Cricketer award; then Trott watches as he is caught in Brisbane last winter getty images
when it comes to something as
low key as a warm-up match against
the student cricketers of Oxford
MCCU.
The scepticism and negativity in
some circles have done him no
favours, either, not least because
he has seen how much they have
hurt his family.
He is not looking for sympathy
but he was not expecting such
criticism from certain figures within
the game. The least he thought he
could expect was the support of his
fellow cricketers in trying to rebuild
his career.
Within the Warwickshire family
that support has, of course, been
there. Support from England
colleagues has been there, too.
Now, perhaps, everyone will understand. Now there will be a realisation that Trott is not someone who
deserted his international teammates in their hour of need but one
who needed help of a rather more
serious kind.
We can only wish him well.
@Matt_Lawton_DM
Daily Mail, Friday, April 18, 2014
95
Trott says: ‘I was getting headaches and all
sorts of things and I wasn’t eating properly
towards the end, and that’s when the sleep
started getting disrupted and emotionally
that was probably when I was worst and it just
boiled over.’
Apr 1, 2014: Plays for
the first time but scores
only four against
Gloucestershire
before falling to leftarm quick David Payne.
Apr 8, 2014: Makes
first-class comeback
against Oxford MCCU,
making eight before
losing his wicket to
teenager Sam Weller.
Apr 13, 2014: Starts his
Championship season with 37
and 26 in Warwickshire’s
defeat by Sussex. Chris Jordan
(left) has him caught in the
second innings.
TOday:
Sportsmail
reveals that he
is taking an
indefinite break
from cricket.
‘con’ anyone
Straining
for more:
Trott is run
out on his
England
debut
pa
My sadness
for popular
Ashes hero
H
ow long ago it now
seems since Jonathan
Trott stepped into an
Ashes-deciding Test
on his debut and,
seemingly oblivious to the
highly pressurised situation at
The Oval, scored a century to
help England reclaim the
precious urn.
Anxiety hits when he plays
From Back Page
has done little to ease the
anxiety he appears to be
suffering when trying to
do his job.
In November, as news
broke of Trott leaving the
Ashes tour, he said: ‘I don’t
think it is right that I’m
playing knowing that I’m
not 100 per cent.’
England coach Andy
Flower added: ‘He needs
time away from this
environment.’
Former England captain
Michael Vaughan later
criticised Trott after the
batsman gave a TV
interview which raised
questions about the
nature of his problem.
‘I feel a little bit conned.
We were told Jonathan’s
problems in Australia
were a stress-related
illness he had suffered for
years,’ Vaughan wrote in a
newspaper article.
‘We were allowed to
believe he was struggling
with a serious mental
health issue and treated
him with sensitivity and
sympathy. He was
obviously not in a great
place but he was
struggling for cricketing
reasons and not mental,
and there is a massive
difference.’
Trott played in all five Tests
when England beat
Australia last summer,
averaging 29. He was then
dismissed for 10 and nine
during the first Test defeat
at the Gabba.
‘I cannot operate at the
level I have done in the
past,’ said Trott on his
return from Brisbane.
‘My priority now is to
focus on my recovery.’
Prolific at the crease
49
18
332
Tests for England. He has scored
nine centuries and 18 half-centuries.
He has amassed 3,763 Test runs at
an excellent average of 46.45. Amazingly,
he hasn’t hit a six in his Test career.
became only the 18th England
cricketer to make a century on his
Test debut, only the second England
batsman to do so against Australia,
following Graham Thorpe in 1993.
Trott’s world-record eighthwicket partnership with
Stuart Broad against Pakistan
at Lord’s in 2010, a match tainted by the
spot-fixing scandal involving Salman Butt,
Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.
Trott’s highest Test score,
against Bangladesh at Lord’s
in 2010.
226
That dream first appearance in 2009
was the start of five years of almost
unbroken success for Trott, who
answered any doubts about his ability at the highest level by becoming
one of the best batsmen in the world
in both Test and one-day cricket.
Yet the effort and sheer determination to get there have clearly taken a
heavy toll on a man who has become
a popular member of the England
dressing room and there will be great
sadness today at the news that he
has had to step away from the game
again because of his continued
problems with anxiety.
Sadness but little surprise because,
in truth, Trott’s stated hope in his
heart-wrenching Sky interview that
he could force his way back into
the England team for their
international against Scotland next month was always
a forlorn one.
England were never going
to rush Trott back under
the international microscope on the back of a
few county appearances
f o r Wa r w i c k s h i r e
because they wanted
to be convinced he
had fully recovered
from the condition
that forced him home
in traumatic circumstances following the
first Test in Brisbane.
He would almost certainly
not have played for England
this summer but, if everything had gone well at
Warwickshire, they could
have considered whether he
was fit enough to return to
Australia for next year’s
World Cup.
Now that wait to
welcome back such a key
performer will go on
indefinitely and the ECB
might wish to ponder
the wisdom of forcing
their players into the
back-to-back Ashes
series that epitomised
the modern day’s crazy
scheduling. There will be
Gabba dabba do! Trott
celebrates his century
in Brisbane in 2010
afp/getty images
COMMENT
by PAUL
NEWMAN
Cricket Correspondent
other victims of the relentless
programming unless something
gives.
Andy Flower, who ultimately took
the decision to send Trott home from
Australia, was aware of the
batsman’s issues from the day he
took over as team director in 2009
and had successfully managed them
until last winter.
Trott will want this to be a
temporary setback, a mere delay to
his eventual return to where he has
looked so comfortable and at ease for
the bulk of his international career
— in the middle churning out runs
for England. And it would be premature to say that this is definitely the
end for him because England will
give a batsman good enough to average 46 in Test cricket and 51 in oneday internationals every chance to
prove that he can come again.
After all, if he had broken a thumb
in Brisbane and returned home then
he would have been considered for
England again as soon as it had
healed. Why, in these enlightened times, should it be any different once he has recovered
from a mental problem?
The only thing was that, in
this instance and with the benefit of knowing what we know
now, he had clearly not
recovered. Not by a
long stretch.
If this does prove
the end for Trott,
who will be 33
next Tuesday, as
an
England
player then he can
look back with pride
at all he has achieved for the
land of his father after making
his life in Birmingham rather
than his native Cape Town.
It turned out England were
absolutely right to throw that
debutant in at The Oval in
2009 rather than go back, as
was being advocated at the
time, to a tried and tested
player like Mark Ramprakash
in the heat of an Ashes battle.
Trott withstood that heat
until the furnace of Brisbane
and Mitchell Johnson eventually
consumed him.
It would take a heart of stone not
to hope that his renewed absence
from the game turns out to be a
short one.
@Paul_NewmanDM
Daily Mail, Friday, April 18, 2014
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Our man Sam Turner
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SEE pageS 90-91
I CAn’t go on
Tormented Trott
takes another
break from
cricket due
to illness
EXCLUSIVE
MATT
LAWTON
Chief Sports Reporter
JONATHAN TROTT is
taking another break from
cricket after suffering the
same mental problems that
forced him to return home
early from the Ashes tour.
The batsman withdrew from
England’s disastrous winter series
after the first Test in Brisbane
with what the ECB described as a
‘stress-related illness’.
He took a four-month break,
working with the ECB medical
team and a psychologist in
an effort to rebuild his career.
But after just one LV County
Championship
Division One game
for Warwickshire, in
which he scored 37 and
26 in a losing cause
against Sussex, the 32-yearold has stepped away from
the game again.
It is understood this has been
a far from easy decision for the
emotional Trott, but his anxiety
levels have been so high that he
felt he had to take a break for his
own wellbeing.
Senior English cricket sources
told Sportsmail last night that an
announcement is expected in the
next 24 hours. Trott was unavailable for comment.
The news will spark fears that
the brilliant career of England’s
No 3 batsman could be over, but
Trott hopes more specialist treatment will enable him to return.
In a recent interview, Trott
said he felt he was suffering from
‘burnout’. But a four-month break
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LAURA ROBSON will miss
Wimbledon this summer after
deciding to have surgery on her
troublesome left wrist.
The British No 1, who captured
the nation’s imagination last year
when she reached the fourth
round at the All England Club, has
ruled herself out of the French
Open too.
Robson has not played since her
first-round defeat by Kirsten
Flipkens in the Australian Open
By MIKE DICKSON
Tennis Correspondent
and has dropped down to No 64
in the world. Injections have
failed to cure the wrist problem
so 20-year-old Robson has opted
for an operation.
Robson said on her Facebook
page: ‘I wanted to inform my
lovely supporters that I have
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