The pathetic performance of the England cricket team in the first Ashes test in Brisbane tells us just how over-rated this lot are. The subsequent departure of Jonathan Trott from the touring party for what has been described as a long-standing stress related illness possibly indicates the extent of the effect of unrealistic expectations on mediocre performers.
A few years ago, Marcus Trescothick departed the Test Match arena on similar grounds, never to be seen wearing an England shirt again; Trott's departure has been accompanied with comments that he will now take a break 'for the foreseeable future' and that his return to the game 'will be decided in due course'. This doesn't bode well for the ex-pat South African.
The simple truth is that our media makes so much of sporting success and expectations that the players can't cope with it. Being told, day after day, that you're the best in the world or that you'll win whatever it is easily, cannot be comfortable, particularly when you're not as good as the press continually says you are. As soon as the conditions are not in your favour, you fail; then you fail again and the analysts are on your back. You fail again and the press is on your back; the pressure mounts and you crack.
Trott is a good solid batsman but he's not Bradman and he's not infallible; Trescothick was the same. On the manicured, home-grown pitches on which they normally play, making runs can be relatively easy but when it is the opposition's turf, things can be different. The great players prosper in all conditions, the more fallible do not, but the media do not care about such distinctions. One good swallow, for them, makes many summers, at least in the minds of their headline writers and pundits.
We can only hope that Trott recovers well enough to at least be restored to county cricket but whether he will ever again appear for England must be questionable. As for the Ashes, I think this team can forget them; a fired-up bunch of Aussies looks like eating them alive.
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