Marcus Trescothick

Nagpur:Because of the very personal nature of the problem, it can’t be confirmed, but talk is that there’s the Other Woman angle to England vice-captain Marcus Trescothick’s sudden departure for home last Saturday.

“Apparently, Trescothick was having an affair and his wife seems to have found out... He had no choice but to return and try and save the marriage,” a well-informed source from the UK told The Telegraph.

The source added: “Trescothick is the type who just loves cricket... Being centrally contracted, he needs the team management’s permission to play for his County (Somerset)... When advised rest, he fights to head for Taunton... Cricket means everything and only a very major crisis had to take him away...”

According to another source, Trescothick “cried like a baby” in the Vadodara dressing room (on the last day of the match against Board President’s XI) before taking a flight for Mumbai en route to London. “He’d recovered by the time he left, but seeing him cry in the lead-up was a disturbing experience...”

It’s not clear whether the vice-captain is going to return.

The 30-year-old Trescothick married Hayley in January 2004 and the couple have a baby girl. He made his debut in the summer of 2000, versus the West Indies, and is among the most respected of openers in the business.

Anybody with a Test average of 45-plus (69 appearances, 13x100) simply has to be treated that way. Trescothick has a fine one-day record, too.