Marcus Trescothick knows he is in the Caribbean on locum work, but deputising for Brendon McCullum has clarified his career ambitions: he would like the England head coach position bestowed on him temporarily for this tour to become permanent one day.
‘Previously, I thought I wanted to be a head coach, but taking the reins for the two series against Australia and here versus West Indies has confirmed to me that I would like the opportunity to do it at some point,’ he tells Mail Sport.
‘I’m very invested in the job I am doing at the moment, so it’s not going to be imminent, but down the line as and when things move around, it is something I would be very open to.
‘I’d love to have an opportunity, when the time comes. It’s a good goal to have. Doing this job now has given me a taster and a belief that I can go on to bigger things.’
Being a part of the set-up as one of England’s assistant coaches is ‘second best to being a player, because you’re in the environment, working with your most favourite team in the world,’ says Trescothick, recalling the buzz he got when he was handed his kit bag when he began his second career wearing the Three Lions back in 2021.
The fact that Trescothick is talking about the long term and being open to travel overseas for work is both heartwarming and a personal triumph. Quietly, bit by bit over the past four years, a man whose playing career was cruelly culled in its prime, aged 30 — by debilitating anxiety issues exacerbated by being away from home — has built up his time on the road. To the point that it has barely been noticed that he will be featuring on all three tours in England’s pre-Christmas logjam.
Marcus Trescothick has been England’s interim head coach during the tour of the West Indies
He will be replaced by England Test coach Brendon McCullum (pictured) in January next year
So what has changed? ‘Experience,’ he replies. ‘Understanding what it was, dealing with it, acting on what I needed to change and learning to be better.
‘You find methods of understanding and then coping, and then gradually working more and more with therapists I have been able to get to a point where I have been able to say, “OK, we’ve done that trip, what’s the stepping stone to doing the next one, and then that one and the one after that?”
‘Gradually you put it all together and it becomes a lot less of a burden than it was. I obviously wanted to get back doing all the various things I am doing now, to be sat here in a hotel in Saint Lucia, but I knew that opportunities post-playing would mean more travelling is involved. The coach that I want to be involves that.’
Trescothick, 48, has spent the past 20 years as a trailblazer on the subject of mental health, destigmatising its relationship with sport in his seminal autobiography Coming Back To Me, which begins with a harrowing passage about breaking down at a Dixon’s store in Heathrow Airport before a flight to Dubai in 2008.
Such chronic past struggles with stress have arguably made Trescothick perfect coaching material, adding an extra empathetic layer to one of cricket’s most likeable characters. He is certainly attuned to the difficulties that modern players face in trying to flip from format to format across continents at a few days’ notice.
Jacob Bethell and Rehan Ahmed, two of the young players who have featured in England’s first series win in the Caribbean in six attempts stretching back to 2019, head straight to New Zealand from here to link up with the Test team. Jordan Cox departed this tour early to prepare for his debut in Christchurch at the end of this month.
On this trip, players were participating in a one-day international soon after disembarking the plane in Antigua.
The lack of preparation is a far cry from Trescothick’s six-year spell with England at the turn of the century when warm-up matches elongated itineraries.
Trescothick pictured celebrating with Liam Livingstone after a win in an ODI match in Antigua
But having been part of both eras, Trescothick believes while this generation require support, they are less needy in terms of build-up.
‘We would have longer trips and the challenges of that were very different. Yes, we may have had a couple of warm-up games, but we also played less cricket, so we kind of needed them. The fact that they’re playing more means modern cricketers don’t,’ he reflects.
‘We finished on September 29 versus Australia. Two days later, we flew out to Multan. Some of the guys were on that flight, so all they needed to do was get adjusted to the heat and the conditions.
‘They didn’t need to get up to speed in playing terms. They didn’t need 10 different net sessions and a four-innings game to get up and ready. It’s just a fitness thing and a mental thing.
‘Things have evolved massively. You kind of put warm-up games in when you need them, and there will be one in Queenstown coming up ahead of the New Zealand series, but also remember it has only been three weeks since they last played a Test match, not two or three months.
‘Of course it is demanding being an England cricketer, hence, some of the Test players aren’t in this environment because we wanted to give them a rest. Some guys on this trip will take a week off in between to freshen up, repack the suitcase, and just spend a bit of time at home with their friends and family. You’ve just got to monitor workloads where you can, and if we identify an opportunity for rest we act upon it.’
England took an unassailable lead following three correct calls by Jos Buttler at the toss, but will balance that during back-to-back contests at Beausejour this weekend with the chance to blood uncapped duo Michael Pepper, of Essex, and Hampshire fast bowler John Turner.
‘We want to expose them to international cricket, so that once Brendon takes over, it gives him a better idea of how they play under pressure when potentially other players aren’t in the team.’
England lost 2-1 to the West Indies in their ODI series but the tourists have bossed the T20s
In the absence of established performers Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Joe Root and Ben Duckett from the eight-match campaign in the Caribbean, others have taken their chance for career regeneration. Saqib Mahmood, Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran are three who have thrived as senior pros.
‘I think that’s opportunity probably more than anything else, isn’t it? Saqib has done brilliantly with the new ball, Livi’s a player who has progressed in understanding a bit more of his game and how he’s going to go about things, while Sam is someone who has always had responsibility with the ball, showing they can also do a great job with the bat,’ Trescothick continued.
Analysis of each member of the 16-strong tour party will be fed back to McCullum and Key tomorrow, when Trescothick goes back to his day job.
His role in the regime will be redefined in the new year, but if further change follows in the future, he knows that he will be ready for it.
