Thorpe supports ‘incredibly brave’ Trescothick
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
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Graham Thorpe probably knows more than anyone about what Marcus Trescothick is going through. In his Sydney Morning Herald column he says Trescothick is an incredibly brave man.
In this sport we play, in which being macho is mandatory and admitting to any kind of fragility is akin to defeat, to make his problems known is incredibly courageous, and people should give him all the sympathy and support he needs.
Obviously, I feel a certain amount of empathy towards Marcus at the moment. When I pulled out of England's tour of India to try to save my marriage in 2002, the disintegration of which had become very public, I remember feeling incredibly alone on the flight home. I felt as if I had let everyone down, that I was a failure. Once I got home, I locked myself in for a while and just generally felt ashamed of myself.
And Thorpe's advice?
Talk to people, get all the help you need and, even though you won't feel it now, be assured things will get better. When I came to the realisation that I was nowhere near being emotionally and mentally ready to come out for the previous Ashes series in Australia, I felt as if I had let a lot of people down, but also a sense of relief once I had put it out there. Looking back, I would not have done a thing differently. I'm sure Marcus will feel the same in time.
Even an Australian golfer has swung support towards Trescothick. Steven Bowditch suffers from depression and speaks about it in The Australian.
In the same paper Jamie Cox, Trescothick’s long-term team-mate at Somerset, tells Malcolm Conn how he had no idea the batsman would be heading home early.
"He showed no sign of it the other night," Cox said. "He seemed in good spirits ready to go. His family was due over in a week or so but obviously there's more to it than that.”
In other Ashes news Australia is preparing to receive 45,000 England supporters during the series, according to The Courier-Mail.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo