Jonathan Trott's stress illness

[shankycricket]

Guess thats officially it for his international career then!

[Alviro Patterson]

"Photographers have been found lurking in his garden and outside his daughter's school since his return from Australia."

Poor bloke can't even get on with his life in peace without the interfering media

[Arthur Crabtree]

My initial reaction is, why has everyone got this so wrong? Trott went into the Ashes with what we were told was a problem that was being managed. And lasted one Test. He prepared for the season in the same state of mind, and has lasted one game. IJLT seems to have little insight into the nature of the problem he has, given the interviews we've seen and read. And whoever is providing his support doesn't seem to have been able to help him in that respect.

Maybe this now erases from the record that he left the Ashes tour because he couldn't face Mitchell johnson. Given he's absented himself from the CC having faced Sussex.

Obviously, good luck to him. Hope he gets over this, and if/when he comes back he is a well man.

[Making_Splinters]

I wonder to what extent the ECB were hoping that he'd be back this summer. It does cast some serious questions about the ECBs ability to support players.

I guess this opens the door for James Taylor, or perhaps Ali if they're still struggling to work out what to do with the spinner.

Cook
Robson
Bell
Ali / Taylor
Ballance
Root / Ali (Sri Lanka) Stokes (India)
Prior / Bairstow / Buttler
Bresnan / Woakes / Borthwick
Broad / Jordan / Another
Anderson / Broad / Another
Anderson / Kerrigan

There's a team in there somewhere!

[sussexpob]

His bravery in going to Australia and playing this week if he had an anxiety issue should be celebrated. Today is the first open mention of the word anxiety, but as I have said all along the suspicion was that his condition was not stress.

Some people can't even leave their house! I hope he retires and goes away to het himself right. It can be a long road, I don't know who was advising him but two weeks holiday doesn't correct your brain.

Mitchell Johnson is nothing compared to the demon he faces....but we already know he is a brave and committed guy.

Here's to his speedy recovery

[yuppie]

I really hope he gets the help and support required.

[sussexpob]

I would also suggest Michael Vaughan may do well to hide for a few days

[D/L]

At least now there should be a reduced danger of the selectors making the mistakes with Trott that we saw with Trescothick.

I don't hold with the theory that this has nothing to do with Trott's experiences in Australia.

I wonder if his central contract will be cancelled.

[GarlicJam]

I really hope he gets the help and support required.

True. and I am sure that the press can support him by leaving him bloody well alone.

[Edward Mills Grace]

It does cast some serious questions about the ECBs ability to support players.

Though, other than "why do some people always think it's all down to the ECB?" not many spring to mind. I don't think they denied him access to medical help or counselling or that they put any constraints around his timetable. In the end, people have to be able to judge their own health - you can't just send a 30 year old man to his room and tell him he's not to play cricket again till he's all better. I hope though that they keep the central contract open for a year-even if he plays not a single game this season - or at least until Jonathan tells them he's not available any more.

I watched the whole Sky interview - not just the inaccurate and sensationalist headlines- and thinking that here was a man who was trying too hard to play down the seriousness of his condition and repeating too many times that he was raring to start again. I know from family members who suffer from it what depression can do and I know about denial, about being as ashamed of suffering from the illness as much as suffering from the illness itself. Of pretending you're coping when you're not because there's always some ignorant prat out there telling you either that you're a nutter or more likely you're not actually ill and just need to pull your socks up. I saw all of that in Jonathan's interviews and it gives me no pleasure at all to say I thought at the time that this wasn't going to end well and in seeing that come to pass. I hope -and if it means the end of his international or playing career, believe me that's a price worth paying - that he finds a way of managing his illness. You can, but have to acknowledge it. Two months ago Jonathan Trott wasn't ready to do that; maybe he is now. I hope so.

But as well as feeling for Jonathan, I feel very angry about an almost textbook illustration of how not to react to someone else's depression. Which is what happens when people are so quick to point fingers that they don't even consider for one minute that maybe it's a bit more complicated than a brief clip on a Sky Sports trailer and that it is possible to think before resorting to bloody Twitter (how much damage will that website cause before journalists stop jabbering about how convenient it makes their lives?) .

So never mind the ECB, what support did Jonathan Trott get from his fellow professionals, from the people he probably looked up to when he started? While he didn't exactly get told to "pull your socks up", from a former England captain who's now paid to communicate intelligently about cricket he was told it's not an illness, just an excuse loss of form and that he's a con-man for claiming otherwise. A view endorsed by Steve Harmison who may well have been at least part-way in the same direction himself. Someone (can't remember who) even spoke in favour of suspension as a punishment for feigning illness and betraying team mates. I imagine that all helped a clearly sick man enormously, well done!

Sorry, I'm pointing fingers now, but quite simply, Michael Vaughan, hearing that you're "Very sad and wish him a full recovery" is not enough, we should be hearing very humble apology for completely misjudging both the situation and the man.

[m@tt]

Vaughan's comments were definitely unhelpful. Simon Hughes also caused a stir on Twitter when he said he didn't think Trott had a stress related illness - and when Trott's interview came out he started replying to some of the old tweets he received basically saying "I was right you were wrong" - he probably isn't feeling so smug now.

The interview didn't feel "right". Vaughan, in a way, was right to question the inconsistency but the finger pointing was out of line. It wasn't a cover up, as he suggested, but sadly it seems like (and that's all I can say atm, like all of us I can't say for certain) it was a man in denial and also a man feeling insecure about the label of depression (although there was a context to his use of the word 'crazy' that got lost in the headlines).

[Alviro Patterson]

At least now there should be a reduced danger of the selectors making the mistakes with Trott that we saw with Trescothick.

I don't hold with the theory that this has nothing to do with Trott's experiences in Australia.

I wonder if his central contract will be cancelled.

May well be the criticism for how Trott bats at 3 in ODIs and it snowballed from there.

[SaintPowelly]

I hope though that they keep the central contract open for a year-even if he plays not a single game this season - or at least until Jonathan tells them he's not available any more.

Not that I disagree with you, but with this wouldn't you then run the risk of Trott feeling a pressure to return ?

[hopeforthebest]

I hope though that they keep the central contract open for a year-even if he plays not a single game this season - or at least until Jonathan tells them he's not available any more.

Not that I disagree with you, but with this wouldn't you then run the risk of Trott feeling a pressure to return ?

Micheal Vaughan milked his central contract for an eternity.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Surely reasonably to point out the ECB have some responsibility in this case, as they've been managing IJLT's condition in recent times. And it fits into a pattern of many things going wrong for England off the pitch in recent times. And on the pitch.