We may be Sussex fans, but we were urging Somerset on in the County Championship and the two limited overs finals in 2010. Even if the Cidermen ended up being left at the alter in all three events, our admiration for their skipper Marcus Trescothick remains undimmed.
Of all the players that have retired from England duty over the last few years it is Trescothick that England miss most, and in all three forms of the game too. His stand and deliver style, whacks over the top and rapid run scoring would unquestionably make England a much better ODI and T20 side.
Indeed, he has scored more one day hundreds (12) for England than any other player leaving second placed Graham Gooch in his wake with eight tons. And it is a left-handed Gooch that Trescothick most resembles. Like Gooch, the Somerset opener struggled against the Australians with McGrath and Gillespie rather than Alderman proving his nemeses in the 2001 and 2002/03 series.
But Trescothick bounced back in the infamous 2005 Ashes where his more aggressive approach paid dividends with 431 runs in the series. He may not have made that elusive test hundred against England's oldest foes, but the fast starts he provided proved critical in the final reckoning.
Sadly, Trescothick's battle with depression curtailed his international career prematurely. Nevertheless, it is hard not to admire the way he has dealt with his illness and the honesty he expressed in his 2008 book Coming Back To Me - one of the few autobiographies of recent times that is actually worth reading. There is no doubt that without this illness Trescothick would still be in the England side and he has now usupred Mark Ramprakash as the best English qualified batsman plying his trade in county cricket.
He may no longer wear the England cap, but Trescothick leaves many happy memories of his international career with the 219 at The Oval 2003, a brutal 180 at Johannesburg in 2005, the pivotal 90 at Edgbaston 2005 and his 193 at Multan in 2005 prominent within a test career, which yielded 5825 runs from 76 tests at 43.79.
Where next?
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