Comment: What’s the Trot-t for?

The experts of the game as well as media men are trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with Trott.

The Jonathan Trott episode has once again highlighted an extremely important aspect of cricket, the aspect relating to the game’s mental side.

Often we hear that cricketers – all sportsmen for that matter – in general need to be mentally tough, that they should have the ability to fight against all odds to ensure a high-quality performance.

There are no compromises; there are perhaps no short cuts. The sporting world is unforgiving and the limelight and the constant media glare at times take its toll on the participants.

For now, Trott is getting support from almost all quarters. Even the fierce Aussies who tore into him during the Brisbane Test are shocked at the premature return of the English top-order batsman, who on the surface at least gave the impression that nothing in the world fazes him.

It seems that the heat of the battle has unnerved the batsman. For him, Geoffrey Boycott’s take on the test of facing fast-bowlers could not be truer. Boycott famously said, “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”

The experts of the game as well as media men from around the world are trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with Trott. We have read terms like depression, stress-related illness, mental frailty and others doing the rounds in different publications.

Some greats of the game such as Martin Crowe, Mike Hussey and Marcus Trescothick – who himself was forced to call time on his international career in eerily similar circumstances – have come out with their versions, experiences and the often brushed aside ‘dark side’ of the sport.

One wonders if the age old cliché ‘it is just a game at the end of the day’ makes any sense now. Is it really a game? Is modern/professional sport in an extremely high-pressure environment merely a game?

When the sport turns into a multi-million dollar industry, does it remain a mere game where media and public scrutiny is the order of the day?

Closer to home we have some Pakistan cricketers who are presently going through really tough phases in their career, and the names of Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed spring to mind.

The ‘Steyn-ing’ of Hafeez has become a big joke on social media and of late we have had our fun at his expense. But on the contrary, what exactly is going on in the mind of the man touted as ‘professor’?

Does he have anywhere to hide for now? What goes on in Hafeez’s mind every time he is sent packing by the havoc-wreaking Steyn-gun?

Are there repercussions? Does he need some guidance, some geeing up from a psychologist for now? Is the Pakistan Cricket Board thinking along these lines?

Similarly, what makes a player like Nasir Jamshed decline so spectacularly over a course of mere months? At the start of the year he was the talk of the town with back-to-back hundreds against our number one rival India.

Now he is more of a rabbit caught in the headlights than an opening batsman of any pedigree. Does he need rest and rejuvenation? Are we losing him by exposing him to the same merciless routine day in and day out?

For now, one is left wondering if there is anyone taking note, anyone figuring out if a cut-throat international sport like cricket is just a mere game?

The writer is a senior sub-editor of the Sports desk at The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2013.

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