What to make of Jonathan Trott?
England batsman's explanation for his Ashes exit in his interviews this week has upset and angered many but neither his words nor his manner are convincing
ESPNcricinfo staff
19-Mar-2014
Jonathan Trott's explanation for his Ashes exit in his interviews this week has upset and angered many but neither his words nor his manner are convincing, writes Sarah Crompton in the Telegraph.
His emotions ride very close to the surface - and his phrasing would surely set any psychologist's alarm bells ringing. He keeps talking about guilt, about a lack of worthiness, about his failure to contribute. He sets such feelings in the past as the reason he had to quit the tour when he felt he had nothing left to give; but their constant reiteration places them firmly in the present. The image he presents is of a man in the grip of an obsession with success, who cannot cope with failure. It is this which drove him to such relentless batting practice that he could not take a break; it is this which filled his mind with cricket and nothing else; it is this which in the end found him sitting alone at breakfast, cap over his face, because he could not face his team-mates and keep his emotions in check.