Goodbye Tres, and thanks for all the memories

SAM DALLING: When rumours emerged last week that Marcus Trescothick had been offered England’s elite batting coach role, West Country WhatsApp groups lit up: "Say it isn’t true?"

Trescothick, Lewis and Patel added to England coaching team

Knowing a day is coming makes it no easier.   

When rumours emerged last week that Marcus Trescothick had been offered England’s elite batting coach role, West Country WhatsApp groups lit up: "Say it isn’t true?"

But it was, and confirmation came from the ECB on Monday: Somerset and their greatest ever player will, for now at least, go their separate ways.  

I grew up in the county and I am far from alone in saying Tres was my hero. He still is.  

I use his nickname like I know him, but my interactions with him stretch to thrusting a scorecard and pen under his nose for the umpteenth time. He was so synonymous with my childhood that he feels familiar.  

Trescothick’s cricketing ability cannot be captured in a few hundred words, and many better judges than I consider him an England great. If runs were cryptocurrency, his career would have stretched the market cap like Elon Musk: he had 40,000-plus by the end, with 98 centuries, and the way he got them was so often breathtaking.

When Trescothick was into his stride, the contest could be done before the first bowling change. He struck fear into quicks and spinners alike.

Football fans often go goo-eyed when recalling the player who could cause the whole ground to inch forward on their seats. Trescothick was the cricketing equivalent: if his side were batting, you hurried to get to the ground for the first ball of the day.   

^{Marcus Trescothick is leaving Somerset after three decades}

When his eyes started to fail, he gave up white-ball cricket and took to batting in spectacles. Anything to keep doing what he loved so dearly: playing for Somerset. Even aged 42 he was making 2nd XI hundreds to keep match-fit, while he was happy to slip on a lid, drop to two knees and field at first slip off Jack Leach.  

As a coach he is equally as impressive. To paraphrase a conversation with Jason Kerr last year, someone with Marcus's record could easily have believed he knew it all, but that is not his style.

He assumed no knowledge and was thirsty to learn. He started work with Somerset’s batters during the twilight of his playing days and has done the job full-time since he retired in 2019.  

But I idolise Trescothick for something that goes way beyond anything he achieved in whites.  

Ever since he was forced home from India while acting England captain in February 2006, his battles with mental health have been well documented. He speaks openly and eloquently on a topic that can be virtually impossible to do justice with words.  

"To see Trescothick in a place where he feels able to go on the road once more fills me with warmth; the way he appears to have grasped what does and doesn’t work for him is inspirational"

His 2008 autobiography Coming Back to Me was William Hill’s Sports Book of the Year, drawing praise for having “fearlessly tackled one of the great taboos of elite sport”. And he has continued to tackle those taboos ever since, in doing so inspiring countless others both within the game and outside it.

He blazed a trail for the likes of Steve Harmison, Jonathan Trott and Andrew Flintoff to open up about their struggles.  

He is living evidence of how it is possible to both go into recovery and then flourish. The way that cricket perceives mental illness and provides support for players has moved forward immeasurably in the last 15 years and Trescothick deserves great credit for that.  

Sadly, he could not get back to international cricket. It was not through lack of effort, but at that stage of his life touring proved a step too far.  

And so to see him in a place where he feels able to go on the road once more fills me with warmth; the way he appears to have grasped what does and doesn’t work for him is inspirational. 

Slowly but surely he has built up his time away from home: day trips first, leading into weeks on the roads. Months on end abroad are, right now, not on the cards so he had that conversation with his new employer and they have offered flexibility.   

That is how it should be but the ECB still deserve plaudits. Yes, the law requires “reasonable adjustments” to accommodate illness and disability, but there are myriad reasons and ways for employers to circumvent those requirements.  

A closed-minded approach would have been to say ‘sorry but if you can’t go on tour full-time we don’t want you.’ But they can see the bigger picture. The world should not operate within rigid lines and Trescothick’s role will see him mentor the country’s top batting talent right through the age groups.  

And by offering a little elasticity, England will feel the benefit of his empathy and understanding. Take the way he has mentored Dom Bess during his fledgling career. It was heart-warming to watch the pair engage in an open and frank discussion during a vodcast for the PCA Trust last year.

At one point Bess reveals: “I remember giving you a hug and crying at the last game of the 2018 season at Trent Bridge and that felt really powerful and like a really big step within my mental health battle. Offloading is a really hard thing to do but knowing you’ve got someone there is massive.” 

This year of all years, with bubble life almost certain to continue, is when someone like Trescothick simply being there might prove invaluable.   

So long and thank you Marcus. Be back soon. 

Subscribe today and receive The Cricketer’s centenary issue – six issues for £19.21. Click here