1 Case study: Jonathan Trott
During the winter 2013 Ashes cricket series in Australia, leading English batsman Jonathan Trott suffered poor form and taunting from the opposition. He then decided – unexpectedly – to leave the tour to return home early.
Activity 1 Exploring Trott’s decision
Watch the video at the link below in which the England cricket team director, Andy Flower, explains Trott’s decision to return home, then answer the following questions.
- What is the explanation given for Trott’s decision to return home? What words or phrases were used that capture the essence of the team director’s explanation?
- Were the events or phenomena that led to Trott’s departure short- or long-term in nature?
You should watch the whole video: www.bbc.co.uk/ sport/ cricket [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
Text boxes are provided in all activities. You can use these to note down your answers to the questions. Once you click Save, your answers will be stored and you can return to them at any point to view or amend your response. Your responses will only be visible to you. However, if you would prefer to make notes using pen and paper or a different format you can.
Discussion
- The reasons given were connected to an unspecified ‘stress-related’ condition. Other terms frequently used were: ‘time away’, ‘with family’ and ‘this environment’. The suggestion was that the environment of high-pressure elite cricket was closely related to the condition, hence the need to get away for rest and recuperation.
- The use of the phrase ‘[for] … quite a while, he has always managed it successfully’ suggests this was a longer-term condition.
Five months after this a TV documentary was aired about the cricketer’s experiences with the title ‘Jonathan Trott: Burnout’. You will read a critical review of this documentary next.