Marcus Trescothick used to have a dream.
[b]Yeezy 700 Desert Rat[/b]
. It is the sort beloved of cricket-obsessed children, or desk-confined
adults who imagine alternative lives as international cricketers. I
always dreamed, he says, of the Oval finish where you raised your bat
aloft and say, Thanks, thats my career done.Ten years ago, on September
5, 2006, Trescothick came out to open the innings at the Rose Bowl in a
humdrum, late-season one-day international of the sort that has become
an English speciality. He was yorked by Shoaib Akhtar first ball. He
pulled out of the last two ODIs of the summer, and then the Champions
Trophy in India, citing a stress-related illness. That November he broke
down in the dressing room at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and left the
Ashes tour nine days before the opening Test. It was the second tour he
had left prematurely in a year.The Oval dream was not to be. He had
played the last of his 202 games for England at the age of 30.Over the
previous six years Trescothick had made himself one of Englands most
cherished cricketers. This was not merely a reflection of his
counterpunching batting but also the sense of normality and decency that
he brought with him. As 21st-century international cricketers go, he
was a little on the rotund side - called the King of Junk Food as a boy,
he then became Banger, after his penchant for sausage and mash. He
would uncomplainingly do whatever the team needed, even serving as
auxiliary wicketkeeper for five ODIs in 2002.On the night of Englands
2005 Ashes triumph, Trescothick and Ashley Giles eschewed an all-night
bender and instead waited to receive the first editions of the morning
newspapers.There was always a hint of the West Country lumberjack to
Trescothicks batting, defined by hefty forearms, scythes through the off
side and a stubborn reticence to move his feet. But his runs
underpinned Englands progress to their 2005 summit: his 219 at The Oval
against South Africa in 2003 secured a series draw; he waltzed down the
pitch with impunity to drive Glenn McGrath for four fours in five balls
in the semi-final of the 2004 Champions Trophy; another epic against
South Africa, 180 in Johannesburg, ensured England won a series there
for the first time in 40 years. Now all that was left was the Ashes
itself: a blistering 90 at Edgbaston reinvigorated England in 2005 after
an opening defeat that indicated a series straight from the 1990s
playbook.Yet this veneer of uncomplicated batting concealed the turmoil
that lurked within. Very often at the back end of tours Id sit down and
go, Do you know what, I cant continue to do all this. I sort of
bullshitted my way through it, and just tried to cover it up as much as I
could do, without telling people what was actually going on - mainly
because I didnt really understand it, and didnt know myself what I was
going through.There were signs early in his international career. He
found a tour to New Zealand in 2002 onerous, exacerbated perhaps by
taking on the new challenge of wicketkeeping. Initially when his spirit
flagged on tour he thought it nothing more than homesickness. After
becoming a father, in 2005, touring became harder. When Michael Vaughan
was injured in Pakistan in late 2005, Trescothick dithered before
accepting the captaincy. He then almost flew home after his
father-in-law fell from a ladder and was in critical condition.At the
start of 2006, England toured India. A few days before they set off,
Trescothick approached Steve Bull, Englands sports psychologist. I said
to him, Trescothick remembers, Somethings not right. I dont want to
train, I dont want to practise, I dont really want to go away next week.
Ive got no interest in whats going on at the moment. His wife was
suffering from post-natal depression, and he felt guilty going on with a
cricket tour as normal.But Trescothick did as he always had done: he
carried on. This time it was too much. When Vaughan failed a fitness
test, Trescothick was required to captain in a tour match, in Vadodara.
He was in no state to do so, suffering panic attacks when he returned to
his hotel room each night. At that point I was a shell, he later wrote
in his autobiography. You could have taken all my kit, all my money,
taken my life away. I didnt care. In the dressing room after the match,
he broke down and was sent home. The team management was unsure how to
break the news, leading to mixed messages: Duncan Fletcher said it was
down to family reasons; Trescothick said that he had picked up a
bug.When he returned to England, a doctor told Trescothick: Youve got
depression. A few months later, in his first innings back for England,
he scored 106 against Sri Lanka. But international cricket, which he had
once relished, was increasingly a burden: not the game itself but
everything else that went with it.When youre in the wrong frame of mind
and youre not thinking rationally, playing in front of that crowd with
the spotlight on you, its bloody horrible. Following his return from the
Ashes tour at the end of the year, Trescothick had to grapple with how
to piece his life back together. He even considered giving up the game
altogether.Its one of those things that always sits within you, that
youre out of control in your brain. You invent things in your brain that
make things a lot worse. What if this happens or what if that happens?
And, of course, one of those things is, What if I cant carry on playing?
But when your brain becomes a bit more rational, and you understand it a
bit more, and youre a bit more healthier again, then you sort of become
normal-thinking in that aspect, and appreciate thats not going to
happen. Its just when youre in a dark place at times, of course those
sort of questions come to you.Before the 2007 season, Trescothick
returned to Somerset, and immediately sensed that he could still find
fulfilment in the shires. Once I got the whites back on, and all the kit
back on, and then you go back out and continue playing - the minute you
get success is the minute you realise, Yeah, do you know what? I was
silly to think those type of things because it was not me - that was the
illness.County cricket is a different world from that which Trescothick
occupied for his six exalted years with England. Taunton embodies
county cricket at its most idyllic. This sleepy, low-key town has the
county ground at its heart. It is famed for exquisite blackberry ice
cream, a special section of the ground for owners to watch with their
dogs, and a pitch that is among the truest in the land.It was just what
Trescothick needed. I think its easier at your home ground, isnt it?
Your familys not far away. He grew up in Keynsham, a small town 45 miles
away, and lives a five-minute drive away from Taunton.Theres less
scrutiny involved, and the whole thing is just down a notch in the
pressure stakes, so youre able to get back and enjoy it for what it is
rather than getting stressed out about the other things that come along,
which naturally you do when youre under in the pressure cooker of
international cricket. These little things are there all the time, but
theyre not as great when youre playing down a level.Not that Trescothick
has ever treated county cricket like it is down a level. Returning to
the county grind can hold little appeal to those who feel they have
achieved all they want from the game. Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss
did not play a single county game after they had retired from England
duty. Vaughan, who is a year older than Trescothick, retired seven years
ago, as soon as he realised that his chances of an England recall had
gone.For Trescothick and Mark Ramprakash, the two most sought-after
wickets in the Championship over the last decade, it was different. For
contrasting reasons - Ramprakash after he was dropped by England for the
tenth and final time, Trescothick after his stress-related illness -
the two returned to the shires with plenty more to give. Three years ago
the writer Jon Hotten interviewed Ramprakash expecting to find a
brooding Heathcliff, banished to the deserted moors. Instead he realised
that it was better viewed as an act of love for batting and for
cricket. Much the same is true of Trescothick. He is motivated not by
anger at the missed years with England, nor frustration at the lost
riches and global adulation he could have earned as a gallivanting T20
specialist, but instead by a visceral relish for batting, especially at
the club he has represented for 23 years.Its the love, its the passion
of the game, the excitement of what it gives you, he says. When he was
appointed Somerset captain in 2010, a role he held for six seasons,
Trescothick longed to be a history-maker and to lead the county to their
first ever Championship crown. He hurled everything of himself into
this quest. It was not enough. In 2010, Somerset finished level on
points with Nottinghamshire but missed out on the title because they had
won one fewer game - all they had needed to triumph was for Lancashire
to survive 16 overs against Notts without losing three wickets. Between
2010 and 2012, Somerset were runners-up in six of the nine county
competitions. In the T20 final in 2010, they muffed a run-out chance
when Hampshire needed a single off the final ball to level the scores
and win the title. That still haunts me to this day, Trescothick says.
You wake some nights and think, Throw the ball! or Someone run him
out!Trescothicks enduring excellence in county cricket led to a clamour
for him to be picked for the final Ashes Test in 2009. It was a notion
he fleetingly entertained - until rumours of a recall led him to wake up
in a cold sweat. He sent a text to Giles, who was an England selector:
Mate, Im not interested. If you were thinking about it, dont bother. Im
done.Trescothick is now the oldest first-class player on the circuit.
His opening partner, Tom Abell, was not yet born when he made his
first-class debut. To see him in full flow, you have to look closely to
find the only discernible change from the batsman who thrived in
international cricket 15 years ago: the spectacles he took to wearing a
year ago. The rest? No, nothings really changed.In the decade since his
last England appearance, no one has scored more County Championship runs
than Trescothick. He has passed 18,000 first-class runs for Somerset:
second only to Harold Gimblett, who had himself suffered mental health
problems in silence and committed suicide at the age of 63.But all these
imposing numbers are not the measure of his impact at Somerset. That is
best measured in the mutual warmth between player and club. At Taunton
they see in Trescothick someone they nurtured from stocky adolescence,
when coaches used to force him to bat in four sweaters in the nets to
sweat out the junk food. Always Trescothick relished coming back to
Taunton when international commitments allowed, his essence unchanged by
stardom. He has revelled in the chance to commit himself to
Somerset.The club has not just been a job for me and a career, he says.
Its been my home away from home for all these years. Thats what its
been.All the while, Trescothick has continued to confront mental-health
problems. Until March 2008, he had hoped he would be able to return to
the England team. But setting off on a pre-season tour to Dubai, he
broke down at Heathrow and realised that he could not go abroad. A few
days later he formally retired from international cricket.Later that
year Trescothick wrote his memoir, Coming Back to Me, which detailed his
challenges in brutal detail. Once I could manage to understand it
myself, and knew what I was dealing with, we wrote the book, we told
people, and the more I told people, the better it became.Ever since, he
has been far more open about his problems. My reason for not talking
about it in the first place was partly I didnt understand it. And youre
always guarded about what the media are going to say. The less Ive got
to hide the easier it is for me. The light at the end of the tunnel was
basically being honest and open and telling people about it, because as
soon as I did, the reception was far different to that we all expected
it to be - really the turning point for my life from that point on.You
kind of get a grip of it, of course you do. But depression is a funny
thing. When youre somebody who suffers with it and its always lingering,
youve always got to be guarded, because you dont know when youre going
to suffer another bout of it. Each one is as bad as the next one. When
you get it badly it knocks you back for a few weeks. Im somebody who, if
you get it badly, youll be suffering for a good month, or where you
strip everything back to basics. Touch wood, those are fewer nowadays,
but its always something youre careful not to try and take yourself back
to, this dark place when it hits you all the time.His coping strategies
are as long as my arm, taking in everything from what to eat to how to
sleep better and how to keep himself busy. I never was somebody who
could ever really sit down to dwell on things that were happening, he
says. It was a case of, right, get up, get busy, do the things youve got
to do, get your work done, and try and distract yourself from how crap
you feel, you know.His depression almost lies dormant now, and just sort
of flares up now and again. I dont think its anything that will just
naturally go away or disappear. I think it will just be lying there in
the background for things to kick off. He still takes antidepressants
every day.In October 2009, Trescothick travelled to India with Somerset
for the Champions League, but his illness forced him to leave after two
matches. In the last two years Somerset have been on pre-season trips to
Desert Springs in Spain, and Trescothick has been among the happy
tourists.Ive loved every minute of it, because it reminded me of what I
loved about touring: you had that feeling of just pure relaxation at
times, and being with the lads, which you do enjoy as a sportsman. It
was a significant staging post in his recovery.Im not ready to just
suddenly jump on a plane and go off working around the world, but I know
I that I can do it a little bit more.Of all the innings he has played
in a storied career, Trescothick reserves particular pride for a game at
Headingley in early 2010. On the face of it this seems curious: in
Trescothicks first match as full-time captain, Somerset were
defeated.The significance lies in how he overcame himself. He arrived at
the ground in a wretched state and considering pulling out of the game.
I felt awful. Going into the match, I thought, I cant be captain, I
cant cope with the pressure of it already - and this was the first game
of the season. His condition was so obvious to his team-mates that they
feared he might even retire his innings; Somersets chief executive
Richard Gould moved to the media centre ready to explain if he did.I
felt so bad and I thought I was going to break down at any minute when I
was out in the middle, but I forced myself to stay out there and I
concentrated my ass off, Trescothick recalls. He ended up scoring 117. I
was like, Thats great. If you can perform under that amount of
pressure, then you can do anything.It embodied his approach of dealing
with the illness. Theres probably times when I could have taken a day
off or taken a game off and said, Im not well enough, but I never have
done that because one of my biggest things was to carry on my daily life
and just be busy and play the game. Theres probably been many a game
where Ive not been up to scratch and been a 100% focused on what Ive got
to do.Though runs on a cricket ground are insignificant against
Trescothicks challenges, they have a cathartic effect. The biggest
healer when youre in that sort of environment is when you succeed out in
the middle, because you get the buzz of scoring runs, he says. And the
captaincy, which he held for six years until 2016, was a help. When
youre feeling rough and you think youre in a dark place, you focus
internally on yourself, but when youre captain you cant do that.Over
this journey Trescothick has done much more than learn to manage his
problems: his openness, the copious hours he has devoted to raising
awareness about mental-health issues, have helped hundreds of others
manage theirs. Theres letters you get, saying, You saved my wifes life.
Thats incredible to hear. You know youve done something good. There
would be so many emails, letters, postcards weve had along the way,
which has been fantastic.He hopes other cricketers will learn from his
mistake in not confronting his problems for so long. The spate of
players who have followed him in speaking up about their challenges with
mental health include Andrew Flintoff, Steven Davies, Michael Yardy,
Jonathan Trott, Sarah Taylor and John Mooney. The catalogue of suicides
among ex-cricketers, documented in David Friths Silence of the Heart,
invites the question of whether there is something about cricket that
makes those who play it particularly susceptible to mental-health
problems, or whether the game attracts those who are vulnerable to them.
Trescothick cant see how we could be any different or more susceptible
being professional sportsmen than any other person walking down the
street. The most recent Professional Cricketers Association survey of
past players, in 2012, suggested that one in five had struggled with
anxiety and depression, which is actually slightly below the national
average of one in four.
Trescothick believes his problems would have been picked up earlier in
todays climate, though he has no idea whether this could have prolonged
his own international career. Besides, his interest now is more in
preventing other people from going through a similar ordeal. It could
still be better. And the more we talk about it and be honest about it
and open up, then the more people who dont suffer will understand, and
can relate to it.On July 5, 2016, Mohammad Amir and Pakistan had 73
overs to bowl out Somerset in the tour opener: more than twice the time
they needed in the first innings. They did not manage it, largely
because of Trescothick bunting the ball through the off side,
uppercutting impudently, harrumphing a slog sweep over midwicket for
six. The upshot was the 61st first-class century of his career and the
47th for Somerset, taking him level with Viv Richards. He has since
scored another two, drawing him level with the record holder,
Gimblett.It was tempting to think of all those lost runs for England
over the last decade. Despite playing in only one World Cup, he had set
an England ODI record for most centuries, which remains unbroken. He was
on course to be Englands first player to 10,000 Test runs, and would
have been a terrific T20I player too. Yet rather than embitterment there
is gratitude for what cricket has brought him - 26 international
centuries, a crucial role in the 2005 Ashes, and partly because of the
premature end to his international career, a treasured status at his
county, unmatched by his England contemporaries. Cricket has given him
so much: The runs, the friendship, the wins, everything.At the age of
40, bespectacled and a little slower than he once was, Trescothick is
still pounding balls through the Taunton outfield. Since 2008,
supporters have been able to watch him do so from their seats in the
Marcus Trescothick Stand. Giving up limited-overs cricket has allowed
Trescothick to watch matches there with his children.To watch the
cricket from a stand that has your name on is a bit odd, he says. Its
something that I wanted to do - just to go and have a look and see what
it all looked like from that angle. But it is quite nice. Its just a
little extra perk that has come along through my time of playing.
[b]Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Sesame Cheap[/b]
. - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the
third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat
the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday.
[b]Yeezy 500 Soft Vision Sale[/b]
.
Argentina winger Ezequiel Lavezzi and France midfielder Blaise Matuidi
scored, with star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic setting up both despite
having a poor game by his high standards.
Forward Eduardo gave Ajaccio the lead in the sixth minute after being
set up by right winger Benjamin Andre, and the Corsican side looked
comfortable in the first half, with the lively Johan Cavalli causing
problems with his probing runs from midfield.
[b]http://www.cheapyeezyswholesale.com/yeezy-boost-500-for-sale.html[/b]
.
Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup
goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers
shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night.
FARGO, N.D. -- North Dakota State, the FCS team known for
toppling FBS opponents, was taken down by one of its own -- at
home.Taryn Christion threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jake Wieneke with
one second left Saturday as South Dakota State rallied from 14 down and
stunned the top-ranked Bison 19-17.SDSU (4-2, 3-0) had been inside the
Bison 5-yard line three previous times only to come up empty. But on
fourth down, Wieneke ran at Jalen Allen and turned in time to catch a
back-shoulder pass from Christion.I didnt know if it was coming to me,
but I expected it to, Wieneke said. It was single coverage and I had to
do everything I could to catch the ball.Wieneke had six catches for 108
yards, while Dallas Goedert hauled in 11 passes for 150 yards and a
score.Just to get the win was awesome, Wieneke said. (Taryns) a beast --
such a great player.The Bison (5-1, 2-1) made it 17-3 on a 26-yard run
by Eason Stick with 10:16 left in the third quarter.But the SDSU defense
took charge after that.Christion hit Goedert from 12 yards out for a
touchdown that pulled the Jacks within 17-10, and a defensive stand gave
SDSU the ball on its own 20 with 2:28 to play.Christion converted two
third-and-long runs on the drive. He hit Goedert on third-and-10 that
took the ball down to the NDSU 2 with 5 seconds left to set up the
game-winner.We played our tails off, NDSU coach Chris Klieman said. They
made plays. Lets give them credit. They made more plays than we did.
Well bounce back.THE TAKEAWAYNorth Dakota State: The Bison, who
stretched their winning streak to FBS opponents to six after beating
Iowa in Iowa City last monnth, will still make the FCS playoffs barring
an unfathomable collapse.
[b]Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Cloud White Cheap[/b].
. Saturday served as a reminder that theyre not infallible.South Dakota
State: The Jackrabbits, who hung 41 on TCU in a road loss last month,
likely punched their playoff ticket by beating the No. 1 team in the FCS
on the road. SDSU outgained the five-time defending FCS champions
523-304 in total yards -- even though the Jackrabbits came into play
giving up 36 points per game.FOURTH-AND-NOPEPerhaps the most remarkable
thing about SDSUs upset win is that it converted just 2 of 6 fourth-down
tries, including two inside NDSUs five-yard line. It feels super, SDSU
coach John Stiegelmeier said. Im proud of our team and of our program.
This is a tough place to play.BY THE NUMBERSChristion completed 24 of 42
passes for 303 yards and two scores. He also ran 20 times for 141
yards, helping the Jacks to 220 yards on the ground. The Bison (5-1,
2-1) had allowed 101 rushing yards in its previous three games. ...
Stick was 14 for 20 for 143 yards passing and ran for a team-high 86
yards and two scores. ... The loss was the first for the Bison since a
24-21 defeat to South Dakota on Oct. 17, 2015.UP NEXTNorth Dakota State:
Travels to face Western Illinois next week. Hosting the Bison after a
loss might not be such a good thing for the Leathernecks.South Dakota
State: The Jackrabbits host Youngstown State on Saturday. Theyll be
celebrating Hobo Day at Dykhouse Stadium.---Online:
www.collegefootball.ap.org
'
'
'
