Former England Test batsman Marcus Trescothick faces returning to India three years after a terrifying attack of depression led the talented cricketer to cut short an India tour.
Former England Test batsman Marcus Trescothick faces returning to India three years after a terrifying attack of depression led the talented cricketer to cut short an India tour.
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Trescothick, regarded as one of England's most talented batsmen, flew back to England after repeated panic attacks in February 2006.
Having opted out of international Test cricket earlier this year, he now faces a return to India after his English county team Somerset qualified for the Champions League on Saturday as the runner-up of the domestic Twenty20 Cup.
Trescothick has three weeks in which to decide if he wants to be part of the Champions League, which carries a prize money of $2 million for the winner and stars a dozen of international cricket's best domestic sides.
The tournament kicks off Oct 9.
Somerset said the county is willing to make special arrangements for Trescothick, who made a 32-ball 56 in the semifinal win over Kent and clobbered 33 off 15 deliveries while losing in the final to Sussex.
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| Former England Test batsman Marcus Trescothick |
"We are not going to put any pressure on him whatsoever," Somerset Chief Executive Richard Gould said in comments published on Monday in The Guardian.
"If he wants to give it a go we will help him as much as we can. If at the last minute he says it isn't going to work we will be fine with that... We may have to make some special travel plan for Marcus out of the normal framework of the team," Gould said.
In an award-winning autobiography published last year, Trescothick gave a detailed account of an attack that happened one night soon after the England team arrived in Baroda Feb 21, 2006, for a match against the Board XI.
"I started sweating heavily. I started shaking. I felt myself losing control. I was petrified. Then came the pictures in my head, specific, enormous, terrifying images. Sometimes, with the covers pulled tightly over my head, I would try and hide from the thought. Then, sometimes out of bed, almost blind with fear, I tried to run from them. Sometimes, I would stand stock still and imagine I could fight the fear with my bare hands."
Trescothick again suffered an attack of depression at Heathrow airport in 2008 as he prepared to fly to Dubai with his Somerset teammates for a tour.
However, his performance in county circuit has come in for high praise from Somerset captain Justin Langer, who said Trescothick has been in "incredible form".
"He's as good a player as you'll see," said Langer.
"I would have picked him for England for the last three years, but it's his choice not to, and having read his book I can understand why he doesn't want to play," Langer said.
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