Trescothick hints at atonement

Marcus Trescothick poked his head out of the darkness yesterday. He did not emerge fully into the sunlight which was enveloping Hobart but for a player with such limited foot movement his steps were not faltering. England may have been beaten again by Australia in a one-day international but it was almost compensation enough that Trescothick made runs again.

His 82 from 105 balls, with nine fours, was prosaic by his standards. But it was his highest score of a troubled tour. He did not know where 82 in a single innings would come from next. It has been a bad few months for Trescothick. He needed yesterday.

It was no quick fix but it showed him that he may need only a touch of replastering here and there rather than a reconstruction of the entire edifice of his batting.

Maybe the burly, bucolic lad from the English West Country somehow felt at home here in small-town Tassie, thousands of miles away from home. Launceston is just down the road.

The boy from Somerset was summoned in 2000 from the shires to the big city and took immediately and easily to the international game. He simply had a bent for the thing. A cavalier fifty on his one-day debut was followed by something similar in his maiden Test match.

The unorthodox technique, foot down the pitch and whack, when he bothered to move his feet at all, did not matter. Who needed Fred Astaire in the England side anyway? He scored runs wherever he went. By his own admission his batting had changed. He felt differently, he had moved on to another plane.

But it has started to go awry. His Ashes series was not quite disastrous but it was well below ordinary. There were only 262 runs. There had been just 321 against the Aussies in the home series in 2001. All right, he did not need dancing pumps but could he leave the diving boots at home, please?

Nobody has been signalling the end for Trescothick, for goodness' sake. His Test batting average remains over 40. The important people in the England camp back him, as they have done all winter, but he was not the same.

The other day he was as candid as an out-of-form sportsman dare be without handing all the advantage to the opposition. Depressed, yes he was depressed. And frustrated because he kept getting in and getting out.

There was perhaps an element of self-deception in that he talked about getting a good ball here and a poor decision there. But there have been plenty of false shots, too.

Michael Vaughan, his Test opening partner and England's hero of the hour, said when he was being praised for yet another century that it would all come right for his mate. "I've probably had his share of the luck this winter," he said. "That will come back at some stage. One little error he makes and he has paid for it."

This was not quite true. Trescothick has not only been out cheaply often but was also dropped three times in the Ashes series as well, without capitalising on it. This is worth mentioning because if the patient is to be cured it is best that the doctor is not misled: if you're on 50 units of alcohol a week and not two, or if you play with your bat away from your body, hitting to point in the air 50 times an innings and not two, then say so.

Of course, he is too good a player – good eye, bold, positive movement of the bat, tremendously hard hitter – not to come back. In coming to praise Vaughan, the captain Nasser Hussain did not bury Trescothick. He deliberately singled him out by name. "Don't forget Trescothick, he will get runs against Australia one day."

The suspicion exists that success has changed Trescothick. It is not that he does not work hard. He works very hard, he is quick to pick up things because he knows his way round a cricket bat. He is also an approachable chap, maybe not as approachable as he was but fame does that.

It has been heard around the bars, which he does not frequent, that he likes the money the big-time has given him. There is nothing wrong with that but if a sportsman starts to pursue money it can deflect you from the importance of playing straight.

Trescothick said in his self-assessment: "I've played 15 years of proper cricket with the way I play and I've really only tweaked little things. Now I might just tweak a little thing here and there. It does take time to get them right."

It was eminently sensible of him, a natural batsman, that he realised things may not just click into place again immediately. Dislocations can be put back into place but they still need a touch of physiotherapy. He is adamant that he will not drop down the order as some have suggested his technique will demand.

"I don't see there's any need. It's a backward step, I would say. I'm not scoring as many runs as I would like but there's no way, I don't see there's any chance of me moving ever again."

He has moved before twice. He started opening at Somerset after a prolific adolescence, moved down the order and was on the verge of becoming a late middle-order bat and seam bowling all-rounder when he was moved up again. Hey Tresco, as the cricketing conjurors like to say.

There is some evidence that Trescothick was getting his runs at some stages despite his method and not because of it. Because it worked, there was no point in changing it. That is probably the proper approach but when the runs dry up the defect may become worse and harder to fix. Duncan Fletcher, England's coach, who first realised that Trescothick could play a bit when he put Glamorgan to the sword, is not panicking. Mind you, Fletcher would not exhibit panic if his house was burning down with his family inside and the fire engine broken down a mile away.

"I don't think there's a player in the world who doesn't have bouts of bad form," said Fletcher. "Even Brian Lara in his heyday went off the boil. Everyone does. Nobody can maintain a high standard day in day out over a period of 15 years."

Together, batsman and coach are trying to introduce amendments. "There's a couple of areas we're working on," said Fletcher. "I don't want to say much, it's a very personal thing," said Trescothick. Stopping him thrusting his bat hard- handed outside off stump so the ball goes to slip or point may be one of the areas.

He did it again yesterday a mite too casually. But by then he had 82. Who needs Fred Astaire?