Arthur Crabtree wrote:and I think Trott made noises to that respect
Trott is making more than noises now, hes shouting at the top of his voice. The press have hardly commented on his words, not made a big deal of it, but Trott seems to infer that the pressure of back to back Ashes series lead to a terrible amount of pressure being put on the team, and that under that pressure he was left struggling to cope, and lead to question his ability seriously. It seems at this point, Flower's attitude is one of ignorance to the problems, that other players were just about suriviving, so Trott felt he had a duty to ignore the signs. But he talks of a personal situation that is tragic, that he wanted to drive his car into a river or a tree, rather than go to be with the team, as he says arriving at the ground or dressing room was a trigger point.
In fact, Cook is on record as saying (in the last month) that in Australia he was netting with Trott, and Trott set the bowling machine to the highest pace setting and for short length, and batted for a long time being hit "hard by about twenty balls". Trott was determinted to prove the whole weakness against pace thing wrong, and Cook says for the life of him he didnt understand why at the time someone, including himself, didnt stop him. I think Cook (from Trotts words) only seemed to realise that Trott was in a very dark place when he arrived at the crease in Brisbane having cried his way down from the dressing room.
The key is, Trott seems to say that Flower offered him to take a ODI tournament off in India, which he needed and accepted. But in OZ Flower also offered certain key players a rest, but Trott infers that Flower offered him the rest, but was very keen (forceful) to tell him that he had already had India off, and that it would certainly be preferred that he didnt take Australia off. He felt like his ODI place was threatened and he had no choice but to accept.... but the extra long tour of Australia was something he couldnt cope with, and he broke down.
I think by memory Anderson took both tours off. There wasnt a hint of bad press about that. In fact, when Anderson was rested the press and team seemed to paint a picture of Anderson being physically restrained in a chair to stop him from running on a field. He loved playing that much (although Anderson has been directly quoted in talking about needing a rest). Trott needed time off, and he had idiots like Vaughan telling him he was misusing the excuse of mental illness to escape a tough tour, that he was weak. Why the ECB told the press Trott was mentally not right is anyones guess, he could have easily broken a finger in a net and flown home for treatment. But its clear the ECB and Flower wanted to punish him, and they wanted the press to punish him, because like their words, Flower believed it.... Flower paid no credenance to this stress or this and that, it was p*ssy talk.