Джордж Тротт: Капитан, вернувший престиж австралийскому крикету.

Australian cricketer

George Henry Stevens Trott (5 August 1866 – 9 November 1917) was an Australian cricketer who played 24 Test matches as an all rounder between 1888 and 1898. Although Trott was a versatile batsman, spin bowler and outstanding fielder, "it is as a captain that he is best remembered, an understanding judge of human nature". After a period of some instability and ill discipline in Australian cricket, he was the first in a succession of assertive Australian captains that included Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill, who restored the prestige of the Test team. Respected by teammates and opponents alike for his cricketing judgement, Trott was quick to pick up a weakness in opponents. A right handed batsman, he was known for his sound defence and vigorous hitting. His slow leg spin bowling was often able to deceive batsmen through subtle variations of pace and flight, but allowed opposition batsmen to score quickly. Trott made his Test debut in 1888, on a tour of England, and would tour England another three times (in 1890, 1893 and 1896), scoring more than 1000 runs on each occasion. For the 1896 tour, Trott was elected captain by his teammates. Despite England winning the series two Tests to one and retaining The Ashes, Trott's ability as a captain was highly regarded. In the return series in Australia during the 1897–98 season, Trott's team was more successful, winning the five Test series 4–1 and regaining The Ashes. At a time when the federation of the Australian colonies was under discussion, the victory saw Trott praised as a "national institution" and his team as having "done more for the federation of Australian hearts than all the big delegates put together". His younger brother Albert also became a Test cricketer. The siblings played their junior cricket with the local Capulet club. Two months later, he played his first inter colonial match, against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval. Batting, he scored 54 runs; his innings included a memorable hit over the leg side boundary from the bowling of leading Test all rounder George Giffen, and he captured seven wickets for the match with his bowling. In 1886–87, Trott hit a double century for South Melbourne in a match against St Kilda and appeared for Victoria against Alfred Shaw's touring English team, claiming four wickets for 125 runs (4/125). During the next summer, he played for a non representative "Australian XI" against Arthur Shrewsbury's XI and George Vernon's XI, two English teams touring Australia simultaneously. His chances for inclusion in the Australian squad for the forthcoming tour of England were enhanced when a number of leading players made themselves unavailable. However, Trott's batting credentials were modest: he had scored only one half century in 29 first class innings. At this point, Trott had enjoyed more success with his bowling. Prior to the Australian team departing for England, a change to the leg before wicket (LBW) law that would aid bowlers of Trott's style seemed imminent. The former Australian player Tom Horan wrote: "There is no bowler in England who has such a fast leg break, and on a fine, firm pitch many a batsman has saved his wicket by his legs or body in opposing Trott's deliveries."

Included in the Australian squad to tour England in 1888, Trott was selected in the team for the First Test at Lord's. He had an inauspicious Test debut: he made a duck in the first innings and three runs in the second, and did not bowl. The Australians won the game by 62 runs, only their second Test match victory in England. However, England retained The Ashes by winning the remaining two Tests and Trott's influence on the series was negligible: he did not pass 20 in an innings, and he failed to take a wicket. Nevertheless, his performances in the other matches of the season prompted Wisden Cricketers' Almanack to write that he, "  fully justif[ied] his selection by scoring the highly creditable total of 1,212 runs, with an average of over 19 per innings", and that his fielding was "excellent at point". The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the innings "  stamped him as a batsman of the highest class". The team missed the all round ability of George Giffen who had refused to tour, thinking it unlikely the tour would be a sporting or financial success. The Australians won 13 matches on tour, losing 16 and drawing 9. and captured 20 wickets. Disappointed by Trott's performances, Wisden felt that he "  barely maintained the reputation he had so honestly gained during the tour of 1888 it cannot be said that he came up to expectations".

In 1891–92, Lord Sheffield's team (captained by W. G. Grace) toured Australia, the first English side to do so in four years. The presence of Grace contributed to a revival of interest in the game that had waned due to a surfeit of international tours and indifferent performances by the Australian team. The Australians won the series 2–1 to regain The Ashes. In the first Test at Melbourne, Trott scored three and 23, but had greater impact with the ball. Requiring 213 runs for victory, England's score reached 60 before their first two batsmen were dismissed. The Australian captain Jack Blackham then gambled by calling on Trott's often inaccurate bowling. Trott took two quick wickets and the English innings never recovered. In returning 3/52 for the innings, Wisden noted that Trott "bowled admirably". The remaining two Tests were less productive for Trott: he finished with 48 runs (at an average of 8.00) and 6 wickets (at an average of 35.00) for the series. A reorganisation of Australian cricket took place in the wake of the tour. The first national body to control the game, the Australasian Cricket Council (ACC), was formed to co ordinate the Australian Test team. Previously, private entrepreneurs and the players themselves organised international cricket. Lord Sheffield donated money to the ACC, which was used to purchase a trophy for the champion domestic team. Trott appeared in Victoria's inaugural Sheffield Shield match, against New South Wales in December 1892. He scored 63 and 70 not out in a winning effort. The ACC appointed Trott as one of the six players to select the touring team for England. The Australian team toured England in 1893 to compete for The Ashes. The English won the series one Test to nil, with two drawn to recover The Ashes. Playing in all three Tests, Trott scored 146 runs in the series at an average of 29.20 and in all first class matches he scored 1269 runs. While Trott did not take a wicket in the Tests, he took 38 wickets in all first class matches that season. In the Second Test at the Oval, Trott scored 92 runs in the second innings after the Australians were forced to follow on; an innings described as "really superb cricket" and "the finest exhibition he has ever given in England". England, regardless, still won the match by an innings. Trott was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Wisden noted that Trott "batted uncommonly well — much better than in 1890" but that when bowling he "did a good many brilliant things against the weaker teams, but he was nearly always expensive and very rarely successful when opposed to batsmen of high class". In between these two games, England won the first Test at Sydney—a remarkable turnaround after they had been forced to follow on—by bowling the Australians out for 166 in the second innings. The second Test at Melbourne saw another English victory; Trott played a rearguard innings of 95 in the second innings, to no avail. Attempting to stay in the series, Australia dramatically revamped their team for the next Test at Adelaide. Albert Trott, making his Test debut, was one of four inclusions while Harry was elevated to open the batting. In a match played in intense heat throughout, Harry Trott made 48 on the opening day before he was run out. Albert was the dominant player of the match with innings of 38 not out and 72 not out (both scored from the number ten position), and a bowling return of 8/43 in England's second innings. Australia won the match by 382 runs. In a Sheffield Shield match that followed, the Trotts extricated Victoria from a difficult situation. Chasing 155 to win, New South Wales fell for 99 with Albert taking four wickets and Harry five. In the fourth Test at Sydney, Australia batted first and scored 284 runs (Albert Trott 85 not out) before England were bowled out for 65 and 72 on a wicket affected by heavy rain. Opening the bowling in the first innings, Harry Trott dismissed Archie MacLaren, Johnny Briggs and Stoddart. The fluctuating fortunes of the Test series created immense interest in the deciding Test at Melbourne. Spectators arrived from all over the country, with special trains laid on from Adelaide and Sydney. Harry Trott's all round contribution was a score of 42 in each innings, six wickets and two catches, but England won The Ashes by chasing a target of 297 runs in the second innings, which they reached with six wickets in hand. Even in England, "the interest was greater than had ever been felt in matches played away from [England]". During the following summer, Trott again acted as a Test selector, along with the incumbent Test captain George Giffen and former captain Percy McDonnell. When choosing the Australian team for the previous tour of England, Giffen used his influence to ensure the selection of his younger brother, Walter. The team chosen for the 1896 tour of England included a number of promising young players, including Joe Darling and Clem Hill, both of whom went on to captain Australia. Albert Trott was a controversial omission, in light of performances in the previous Ashes series, but he accompanied the team on their voyage and later settled in England. He had a successful career with Middlesex and appeared for England in two Test matches against South Africa. The cricket historian David Frith records that when the Trott brothers encountered each other on an English street, they merely exchanged acknowledging nods and kept walking.

While the team was en route to England, the players elected Trott as captain ahead of George Giffen. In reply, England made 292 with Trott taking two wickets. In their second innings, Australia was still 177 runs in arrears with three wickets down when Syd Gregory joined Trott at the crease. Their partnership of 221 runs led Wisden to record that, "as long as cricket is played  cause the match to be remembered". At the beginning of England's first innings, Trott opened the bowling with his flighted leg spin. England totaled 231 and, forced to follow on, scored 305 runs in the second innings, K. S. Ranjitsinhji making 154 not out. In a tense finish, Australia made the 125 runs needed for victory with three wickets in hand. Trott made 1297 runs and took 44 wickets in first class matches on the tour. Of his batting Wisden said "Trott's average is a little disappointing, but when a special effort was required he was not often at fault." and he bowled "on a good many occasions with fair results". However it was as a captain that Trott earned most plaudits. Wisden rated Trott as "with the exception of [Billy Murdoch],   incomparably the best captain the Australians had ever had in this country". With Joe Darling, Trott devised a plan to curb Ranjitsinhji's run scoring. An exponent of the leg glance, "Ranji" would take a last look at the field before he took guard. Taking advantage of this fact, after he took strike, the Australians deliberately weakened the off side with two men placed about away from him. Bowling a leg side line, the Australians aimed for a catch from a shot played to that side. Darling said of the plan, "As soon as he had his last look and the bowler was at the point of delivering the ball, we shifted positions by a few yards, sometimes one way, sometimes the other. Occasionally, only one would move and sometimes none would move. [ ] This eventually put him clean off his game." Australia fought back to win the Second Test in Melbourne by an innings and 55 runs with Trott scoring 79 runs. The Third and Fourth Tests were both won by Australia as they retrieved The Ashes. The Fifth and final Test in Sydney would be Trott's last. In the Sydney heat, Australia won the Test by 6 wickets but Trott had an attack of sunstroke. This caused him to lose the sight in one eye before his last Test innings, where he made 18 runs. Although the proposal was defeated by a single vote, Trott was one of twelve Test players who signed a letter to the ACC secretary calling for the disbanding of the organisation. Failing to win the support of the players, the ACC folded in January 1900 following the withdrawal of the New South Wales Cricket Association.

Less than six months after leading his team to victory over England, Trott endured a severe mental illness. In 1902–03, he turned up uninvited to a Bendigo United Cricket Club practice session and asked to join in. He played five first class matches during 1903–04, scoring 268 runs at an average of 26.80 and taking 13 wickets at 23.53 runs each. In his final appearance of the season, he led Victoria against Plum Warner's touring English team. Trott later returned to South Melbourne, where he played until the age of 44. In 1912, Trott took the side of the "Big Six", the Australian cricketers opposed to the newly formed Australian Board of Control for International Cricket's attempt to wrest control of touring Australian sides from the players. At an "indignation meeting" at the Athenaeum Hall on Collins Street in Melbourne, the Argus reported Trott as saying that "to say he was disgusted with the Board of Control was to put it mildly" and that "[h]e would like to shake hands with the six men who had stood out against the Board". At the age of 51, Trott died of Hodgkin's lymphoma, at his home in inner suburban Albert Park on 9 November 1917. He was buried at Brighton Cemetery where, two years later, a large monument was erected over his grave, paid for by the Victorian Cricket Association and cricket enthusiasts. His great grandson, Stuart Trott, played 200 games for St Kilda and Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League between 1967 and 1977. The South African born English cricketer Jonathan Trott is said to be a distant relation of Harry and Albert Trott. However, it has now been proved that this is incorrect. Jonathan’s family originates in Woodbridge, Suffolk, whereas Harry and Albert’s family originates in Yorkshire. Trott's role in Australian cricket was recognised by the clubs for which he had played. Until 2005, Trott's club team, South Melbourne Cricket Club was based at Harry Trott Oval in Albert Park, while Bendigo United Cricket Club, for whom Trott played in 1902, still play at the Harry Trott Oval in the Bendigo suburb of Kennington.

The authoritative cricket journal Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, in an obituary, wrote "Australia has produced greater cricketers than Harry Trott, but in his day he held a place in the front rank of the world's famous players. He was a first rate bat, a fine field at point, and his leg breaks made him a very effective change bowler." As a batsman, Trott scored his runs mostly in front the wicket. He often lifted his on drives and was an exponent of the late cut. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described Trott as "one of the soundest [Australian batsman], combining as he does vigorous hitting with a strong, watchful defence". Warwick Armstrong, a childhood admirer and later teammate of Trott, said "Trott had an almost uncanny knowledge of batsman who were likely to succumb to his wiles and after he had met with a success, he would at once take himself off and put on some other bowler of a different type." Wisden thought his bowling was "too slow to be effectual against good batsmen" The sporting newspaper The Referee wrote, "[Trott's] bowlers felt he understood the gruelling nature of their work and that they had his sympathy in the grimmest of battles." Some English professional cricketers thought less of Trott's captaincy; wicket keeper William Storer said, "I like a captain to have a settled plan, [Trott] just seemed to do whatever he thought of at the moment." He was "imperturbable, good humoured   few Australian captains have been better liked and respected".