Administrators need to get the balance right in managing cricketers

Among the hundreds of analyses prompted by Jonathan Trott’s troubled exit from the Ashes series, interesting angles were advanced by two Mikes, Atherton and Selvey, both former England players now perceptive observers of the game in print and on TV and radio.

As with all the others appearing on the internet, bar none, both were suitably sympathetic to the mental problems that ended Trott’s tour. He is the latest of several cricketers to crack under the stress-related illness to which those in the public eye – sportsmen, pop stars, politicians, business tycoons – are most susceptible.

A variety of reasons have been attributed to the decision of a batsman with nine Test hundreds and an average of 46 to drop out.