London: England opener Marcus Trescothick says he needs a complete break from cricket following a gruelling winter schedule and his country's World Cup failure. The 27-year-old Somerset left-hander has been away from home since mid-September as England embarked on the Ashes series in Australia prior to the unsuccessful campaign in South Africa. "To be honest, I've had such a gut-full of playing cricket over the last five months that I just want to get it out of my system," Trescothick told 'The Mail On Sunday' newspaper. "The combination of all the things we went through over Zimbabwe, being away for so long, not being able to get a break from the environment we were in and my battles with my own form have left me demoralised and frustrated. "I get so much enjoyment from the game and I love it so much but, at the moment, I've reached the stage where a bit of enthusiasm has gone - and that scares me. I am experiencing something I never have before and I thought I never would. I've stopped enjoying it." After weeks of debate, England refused to play its World Cup fixture against Zimbabwe in Harare because of safety concerns, and subsequently failed to reach the Super Six stage of the competition. Trescothick believes England would have been among the contenders for the title had it progressed, but he defended the decision not to play in Harare. He reflected, "In hindsight, forfeiting the points may have cost us a place in the Super Sixes and we would have felt very confident of going further. Bearing in mind how well we had competed against Australia, perhaps all the way. "But if you ask me, 'was that a price worth paying?', I would say without hesitation, 'Yes'. You can't put a price on the kind of things we were hearing and reading. It only takes one man with a grievance and a weapon and, at the end of the day, there were far more important things at stake than playing a game of cricket." Copyright AFP 2001

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Hussain wants Eng to toe the Aussies on captaincy front

Tags: cricket, england opener marcus trescothick, world cup, somerset, world cup in south africa.