The challenges are familiar to Marcus Trescothick. England’s current batting coach and former opening batter has battled anxiety since childhood and was diagnosed with depression in 2006 after returning from the national team’s tour of India.
Although Trescothick does not attribute his struggles to the demands of touring – which can see players spending months at a time away from their families – he was part of a very different England set-up.
Seventeen years ago, Trescothick and his England team-mates were able to call on the services of Steve Bull, England’s then sports psychologist.
While this was still beyond the provision available to many elite athletes at the time, support with the mental side of performance and personal wellbeing has vastly increased since.
The ECB’s various international teams now have access to a six-strong team, with Marzetti joined by two clinical psychologists and specialist support for the T20, ODI, women’s squads and ECB coaches.
In his playing days, Trescothick and his team-mates were aware that in some set-ups, time was always ticking.
Coaches’ faith could quickly be exhausted and a player, such as the mercurial Mark Ramprakash, would only be one underwhelming match away from speculation and scrutiny over their place.
The threat posed by such a short-term outlook, dictated almost exclusively by output and results, created a fear of failure. Part of Trescothick’s role is drawing the sting from the scorecard and what it might mean for a player personally.
“The way that the management team deal with success and failure – the more consistent and relaxed that approach can be – helps players feel comfortable,” explained Trescothick before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
“I think it’s about trying to enjoy it as much as you can, rather than getting caught up in the fear of losing or worrying about getting it wrong.”
It is a sentiment backed by Marzetti. For him, shifting the emphasis away from a ‘win at all costs’ attitude not only removes pressure but also forges stronger bonds between squad members.
“I think one of the most powerful things that Baz and Stokesy have done in their time so far is shift the meaning around playing for England,” he said.
“One of the biggest changes has been that there’s probably a purpose and meaning to being in an England squad that is greater, than whether it’s a ‘W’ [win] or an ‘L’ [loss] at the end of the game.
“Results are always going to evoke emotions… but I think when there’s greater purpose to the environment, there’s a greater purpose to being an England player.”
When Marzetti looks for an example of the ethos in action, he picks a defeat, not a victory.
In February, England became just the second team in the 146-year history of Test cricket to lose a match by one run, edged out by New Zealand in an instant classic.
“The result didn’t go the way in which anyone would’ve wanted the result to go, but it was an unbelievable game of cricket,” he said.
“We committed to the way in which we wanted to play and we were part of an amazing spectacle which almost supersedes the result.
“The players know, ‘If I go out and I try to commit to what I’m being asked to do, I know if I do fail I’m still going to get the backing of the dressing room, coach and captain’ – because there’s a buy-in to what we’re doing collectively.”
If players’ minds are conditioned differently, so are their bodies.
Rob Ahmun, former Glamorgan strength and conditioning specialist, joined the ECB in 2014 and now heads the medicine and science department, which Marzetti is part of. Ahmun has witnessed a fundamental shift in the way players are physically prepared for Test cricket – the new levels of trust invested in them come with more personal responsibility for their fitness.
“There’s been an evolution from being the drill sergeant, standing there, watching every rep a person makes and telling them what their week should be like, to having more facilitative coaching conversations with the players,” Ahmun said prior to this summer’s Ashes
Ahmun described a mantra of “arriving at the series ready to perform” – giving players autonomy and buy-in to the team’s aims.
It is an ethos brought into focus by Stokes’ ongoing attempts to overcome a long-standing knee injury. The England skipper bowled just seven overs across the two Tests in New Zealand earlier this year, but managed 14 overs in the Ashes opener at Edgbaston. A nine-week recovery period, during which he appeared only sparingly for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, was managed in conjunction with Ahmun’s team.
The backroom staff play a vital role in monitoring the physical demands of Test match cricket. During a typical game, Ahmun estimates England’s fast bowlers will run 7km at a speed of 20km per hour, the maximum speed on most treadmills.
While Ahmun’s team don’t shy away from number-crunching – looking at GPS data, bowling overs and training workload, in particular – the unmeasurable human element is crucial in deciding if a player is ready and fully prepared for the white heat of a Test match.
“Sometimes, I won’t even mention an injury during the rehab phase, because I don’t really want to draw attention to that,” he said.
“I don’t want them to internalise their feelings and go body scanning to say: ‘Right, how is my hamstring feeling?’
“If the player feels something, they’ll tell you, rather than you constantly asking and almost reinforcing the negative side of things.
“The conversations coaches and physios will have with players, just asking how they’re feeling, can sometimes be overlooked, but it’s a very important piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, it’s the person who we want to be ready to perform.”
