BOOK REVIEWS
Autobiography
Coming Back To Me
Marcus Trescothick
We Rate:
BOOK SYNOPSIS
At 29 Marcus Trescothick was widely regarded as one of the batting greats. With more than 5,000 Test runs to his name and the 2005 Ashes hero, some were predicting this gentle West Country giant might even surpass Graham Gooch's whose record to become England's highest ever Test run scorer.
But the next time Trescothick hit the headlines it was for reasons no one but a handful of close friends and colleagues could have foreseen.
On Saturday the 25 February 2006, four days before leading England into the first Test against India in place of the injured captain Vaughan, Trescothick was out in the second innings of the final warm-up match. As he walked from the field he fought to hide the emotional storm that was raging inside him. In the dressing room he broke down in tears, overwhelmed by a blur of anguish and uncertainty. Within hours England's best batsman was on the next flight home.
Until now, the full extraordinary story of what happened that day and why has never been told. Trescothick reveals for the first time that he almost flew home from the 2004 tour to South Africa, and discusses a second crushing breakdown nine months later that left him unable to continue the 2006-07 Ashes tour down under.
Coming back to me replaces the myths and rumours with the truth. Trescothick talks with engaging frankness about his descent into private despair and the circumstances behind his international retirement as he seeks to rebuild his life.
OUR REVIEW
Marcus Trescothick's brilliant yet sad autobiography is a story that needs to be heard and told and was very much a break through in the acceptance and importance of mental health in sport and how when life looks rosy to the outside world, the demons that can affect your mindset an bring a brilliant career on the field to a crushing and abrupt halt.
The importance of Trescothick to English cricket is arguably understated for the reasons that his style of batting was very far from the perceived norm and the perceived quality that many thought was needed in the International game and the impact his pick had, still reverberates in the game today with players plucked into the international game, ahead of those likely doing much better in the grounding of the game, the domestic cricket scene.
His minimal foot movement opening the batting for England was seen as a problem and why he would never be a Test match cricketer to many pundits. He could get away with it in the One Day Game perhaps but that wasn't going to deter the Somerset batsman, and he was able to take his talents of hitting the ball hard to negate what was apparently needed. Many opponents of the era have spoken of Trescothick's impact on the game and how important he was, alongside contemporaries like Adam Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag for the modern game.
At the very height of his powers however, his mental health suffered and documenting how his International career, came to an abrupt and premature end on the tour to India in 2006, how he dealt with the situation, how it manifested itself, how it has remained a struggle to get over the impact of the illness and how it has opened the doors to acceptance within the game, maybe not straight away but certainly the impact it holds today.
Thankfully, we have seen Trescothick go on to carve out a hugely successful coaching career within the England set-up and though the book is over 15 years old now, what would be fantastic is for updates since it was written and how it has impacted his coaching career, touring abroad and how he has been able to manage mental illness and show that it can be managed.
