7 months away from the Ashes...

[Richard]

Interesting book Tresco's - he clearly had a torrid time for years with his mental health issues and the account he gives of his condition is at the same time fascinating and harrowing and quite clearly was understood at the time by not a single soul

Now to me it is quite inconceivable that at no point in Tresco's career did some England colleague or member of staff either by accident or design piss him off big time either at the time, with hindsight or both

Now the point of an autobiography for the likes of Tresco is to sell lots of books 'cos it's your last big pay day and a good way of doing that is to do a Duncan Fletcher and lambast all and sundry

So why does Tresco not have a single word of criticism/admonishment for anyone connected with the ECB or the England team?

I'll tell you why not and it's not just 'cos he's a nice guy it's because he doesn't want to jeopardise the real plan which is keep reiterating you're never going to play for England again, carry on scoring shed loads of runs for Somerset and then just as the selectors are tearing their hair out with Ian Bell step back up to the plate and help the boys take back the Ashes in '09

There is no other explanation for the lack of whining and whinging in Tresco's book and of course to add to the credibility of my argument he then has a second chance to write a best seller when he deals with his recovery and international rebirth at which time he can then slag off all the bastards who crossed him when he was ill

So I'm sorry Punter but the real Marcus Trescothick is waiting for you just round the corner and you popgun attack is going to wish it stayed behind

Blast - I've lost my medication now ........................................ Nurse come here please .........

You know, it took me a few paragraphs to spot the jest there.

 

[Richard]

I briefly thought about who should bat at 3 but I decided I didn't really care.

I see. Well I do TBH.

And Trescothick would be brilliant, he's such an awesome batsman. Are you really saying you'd rather have Trescothick than Bell?

Not sure. As I say, if Australia bowl well and catch well Trescothick wouldn't get a run, I've absolutely no doubt about that, he's not an awesome Test batsman when catching is up-to-scratch and bowling is better than diabolical.

Bell I honestly believe would have a better chance under said circumstances but that doesn't mean he'd be likely to do all that well either. And clearly if the catches go down and the bowling has a bit of waywardness in it, Trescothick is your man as he can really punish it heavily.