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‘Just one of the guys’: Trott bows out with Warwickshire win
LONDON, Sept 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Former England batsman Jonathan Trott helped Warwickshire beat Kent to claim the Second Division County Championship title on Wednesday in his final match before retiring from first-class cricket
“It’s not about me, it’s about this being a good day for the club,” Trott, who did not get a second chance to bat in an innings and 34-run victory, told the BBC. “I’ve always preferred to be just one of the guys.”
The 37-year-old South Africa born batsman, out for just eight in Warwickshire’s lone innings against Kent at Edgbaston, had announced before the season started that this would be his last campaign in senior cricket.
Trott, who scored 935 Championship runs this season at 46.75 including two hundreds, said announcing in May he would be retiring had enabled him to enjoy a “new lease of life”.
“This was my sole purpose this summer,” explained Trott, whose wife, Abi, was once Warwickshire’s communications officer. “Making the decision I did in May gave me a new lease of life and allowed me to enjoy this last season.”
Trott, who scored almost 19,000 first-class runs in his career, added: “Warwickshire has given me a home. Abi, my wife, was part of the club, and the superb support I’ve had from my family has been amazing.”
For England, Trott scored 3,835 runs in 52 Test at an average of 44.08 including nine hundreds.
He hit a century on Test debut against Australia at the Oval in 2009 to help England clinch the Ashes and for several years made the problem number three position his own.
Trott was also the International Cricket Council’s player of the year in 2011 but the notoriously intense batsman’s Test career came to a shuddering stop with an early exit from England’s 2013-14 Ashes tour of Australia due to a stress-related illness.
With Australia winning 5-0, Trott’s departure led to several cruel jibes that his problems stemmed as much from an inability to cope with fast bowler Mitchell Johnson as much as anything else.
He returned 18 months later for the 2015 Test series in the West Indies but then retired from international cricket.
“I’ve had some fantastic moments with Warwickshire; winning the Championship for the first time in 2004,” said Trott, who now hopes to become a cricket coach.
“With England, that run out (of Simon Katich) at Adelaide (in 2010/11) was a fantastic moment but we ended up winning that Test by an innings.
“That’s the way I like to look at things.”
BSS/AFP/AU/08:15 hrs