'His great legacy is starting the conversation about mental health in cricket'; Dominic Cork and Rob Key consider Trescothick's contributions to the game
Thursday 26 September 2019 14:23, UK
Cricket paid tribute to the achievements of Marcus Trescothick on the final day of his 27-year-long professional career.
Somerset opener Trescothick, 43, is retiring from first-class cricket, over a decade after calling time on his international career which spanned 76 Tests for England.
Widely-regarded as one of the nicest men in the game, Trescothick took the opportunity while co-commentating on his county's Championship clash with Essex on Sky Sports to thank those who have sent him their best wishes.
Among those was fellow former England international Dominic Cork, who said: "Tres has had a magnificent career.
"He made the decision to retire a while ago so he's come to terms with the fact that he's not going to play cricket anymore and he's moving on now to the next stage of his career, which will be coaching.
"When you think how long he's been around, you wonder how he's still got the enthusiasm for it.
"Really early in his career, Duncan Fletcher saw something in him that was going to be a force for the England team. Let's be honest - he would have played a lot more than 76 Test matches.
"He'll be missed but hopefully he'll be able to put something back into the game through his coaching. Good luck to him in the future because he's a great character to have around."
Trescothick scored 5,825 Test runs at an average of 43.79 in a career that included England's famous 2005 Ashes win.
As impressive as his playing record is, Sky Sports pundit Rob Key said that a large part of Trescothick's legacy will be the way in which he opened up about his battles with depression and anxiety, which ultimately cut short his international career in 2006.
"If I was picking an England XI from my time (Graham Gooch was before my time), I'd have Marcus Trescothick and Alastair Cook as openers," said Key. "All round, he's one of England's best batsmen over the last 40-odd years.
"At that time, he was something of a standalone in English cricket in the fact that the 12 hundreds that he got in ODIs came at a time when reverse swing was the thing - there weren't two new white balls - and the field restrictions were tighter.
"To score a hundred today looks a bit easier than what it did back then, because all of a sudden the ball got softer and you couldn't clear the fence as easily. There wasn't the gap because of the extra man in the circle.
"He was cut short in his prime. I can't think of many other cricketers who were so open about their mental health struggles. He was, in my eyes, one of the first and that allowed others to start the conversation.
"That will be his great legacy because, since Marcus Trescothick, he's almost given the right for anyone else who was struggling to talk about it through what he's done, which was incredibly brave."
