Tresco mystery continues...

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England opener Marcus Trescothick, who left the tour of India after just 12 days, says he is keen to return to the national team as soon as possible.

"I had to leave India because I picked up a bug and it hit me hard. I could not shrug it off and it left me fatigued," he said.

"I am keen to get back playing and am making myself available for Somerset.

"Hopefully from playing with my county I will get myself back into the England frame in the summer."

When Trescothick flew home he initially said personal reasons were behind his decision to leave the tour.

He now says spending time away from his family was part of the reason, and insisted illness was the main factor behind his departure on the eve of the Test series.
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"The main reason was that I picked up a bug when I was out there," said Trescothick, who said he was still suffering from the virus as recently as three weeks ago.

"The second part of Bombay really hit me hard; I wasn't sleeping and couldn't shake it off.

"We moved to Baroda, and it didn't get any better; I wasn't eating or drinking, and it really took its toll.

"It got to the point when I said I was pretty fatigued and struggling to concentrate on my cricket ahead of a big Test match.

"I spoke to the people that needed to know and decided it was the right thing to come home."

At the time of his departure, England coach Duncan Fletcher said: "Marcus Trescothick is flying home to Heathrow tonight for a family reason, and I hope his privacy is respected in this matter."

On Tuesday, Trescothick admitted that spending long periods away from his family was becoming an issue.

"We play so much; we spend 300 nights a year out of our own house either travelling the world or at hotels preparing for games in England," he said.

"There are times when you have to understand that you need to have a rest.

"Touring Pakistan and India are probably the hardest you can do, because it is not easy to take your family away to that part of the world. You spend a long time away from home."
 
He's been playing away from home - not just cricket.


Rumours
 
Opener Marcus Trescothick confirmed his England availability after playing his first innings since his controversial departure from the tour of India.

Trescothick's return sparked confusion as first personal problems and then a virus were blamed for his exit.

"I will be available for everything England want me for over the next 12 months and beyond, all the series, the Ashes, the World Cup," he said.

He returned to action on Saturday with 74 for Somerset against a select XI.

The left-hander played some familiarly powerful strokes, striking the first ball of the match against the West of England Premier League for three and racing to fifty from 85 balls with four fours and a six.
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He was finally stumped after facing 113 balls and adding a further three fours and another six.

"It went pretty well out there for me and I was glad that in my first innings for a long time I spent 40 overs out in the middle," he said.

"I was excited at the prospect of playing again when I walked down the steps going out to bat and I guess that if I am honest with myself I was pretty impressed with the way that I played after such a long lay-off."

England face another arduous year of international action, with home series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, followed by the Champions Trophy in India in the autumn and the Ashes in Australia in November and then the World Cup in 2007.

To hear the 30-year-old left-hander say: "I want to play as much as I can" will be a major boost to the England hierarchy.

"When I left India I just wanted to get away," Trescothick added. "I didn't even watch the cricket on TV.

"This has made me appreciate what I do and now I'm gagging to play again."
 
THE TRESCOTHICK AFFAIR

Reek of arrogance as cricket peddles public any old nonsense

Kevin Mitchell
Sunday April 16, 2006
The Observer


Did Marcus Trescothick embellish the truth? Only he knows, of course, but it was probably not as serious a manipulation of the facts as Andrew Symonds and the Australian tourists indulged in last summer when a 10-hour session by the all-rounder before the Bangladesh humiliation in Bristol was represented as - would you believe it? - a virus.
Symonds's virus was supposed to be flu; Banger's remains undiagnosed. The real virus in sport is humbug. Ricky Ponting was forced by the smell of alcohol on his player's breath to admit the truth; but it is unlikely the team management would have done so if they could have got away with the deception. This is the daft game elite athletes play with the media every day.

Damage limitation, they call it. But it causes more damage than it limits. It undermines what trust there is between the team and the people paid to report on their deeds, on the field and off. Players will say - as they often used to - that what happens on tour, stays on tour. But such is the concentration of interest by the media on modern professional sport that no such luxury can be afforded these privileged few.
What irks most people about these and other absurd explanations of 'personal problems' is the notion that any old nonsense will do for public consumption. It reeks of arrogance, or at least indifference to outside opinion.

It does Trescothick a disservice because he is not a dissembler. He is an uncomplicated, if private, individual who takes his responsibilities seriously. He has grafted over the weaknesses in his game - and therein lies a clue as to why he really came home five weeks early from India.

There is no reason to believe he did not have a virus, but it is difficult to accept it was so serious it forced his departure from an important tour - especially when the original excuse put out by Duncan Fletcher was that he was going home for 'family reasons'.

That, in fact, was probably true. His wife had had a baby and, the story goes, was finding the experience as difficult as many mothers do. Trescothick may well have been similarly concerned.

But I suspect there was another reason. Trescothick told me before the start of the 2004 season how important practice had become to him, as opposed to the grind of batting for real runs on tour with little time to iron out faults. 'It's all about having the time to practise properly,' he said. 'Just to practise is a nice feeling, rather than having to go out into the middle and worry about scoring runs.'

And, as he pointed out to that fierce Sky Sports inquisitor, Ian Ward, last week, an average year sees the England team away from home for 300 days or more. Not only does such a schedule put pressure on relationships, it limits time for practice. And practice is at the core of Trescothick's trade.

John Buchanan, the Australia manager, made a similar point last summer. He said the team need to 'get the numbers up' in various drills to feel their game is in good working order. It sounds dry and boring, but that's how intense the modern game has become.

There are no leisurely cruises to the Antipodes now. Players are jetted in at a moment's notice; others are flown home just as quickly - usually because there is some crisis in their private lives.

That's as it should be. The England set-up, brutally indifferent in the past, now understands that players' careers will be longer and more productive if they have time to take care of 'family problems', or whatever else crops up in their absence.

In that regard, it was easy to detect the well-meaning but ill-advised influence of Richard Bevan in Trescothick's unconvincing performance the other day. Bevan, the Professional Cricketers' Association's group chief executive, first came to general notice during the last World Cup when he loudly championed their right to boycott Zimbabwe.

Not everyone liked his intrusion. Cricket doesn't take to trade unionism easily. But I think he meant well. As he probably did in advising Trescothick to talk about the pressures of touring.

But, whether or not he instigated the interview, it was totally unnecessary in the first place. The 'mystery' of Trescothick's trip home had lost its immediacy. He could easily have resumed playing - as he did in a warm-up match in Taunton yesterday - without any fuss at all.

If the strategy was to deflect interest away from the player's 'family problems', it didn't work because the excuse given was so lame.

The core of it is that Trescothick was suffering burnout, as Bevan and Fletcher knew. But, for a variety of reasons, the player or those advising him chose to dress it up differently.
 
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