Trott: “Edgbaston is my home”

Jonathan Trott is thoroughly relishing his closer involvement with Warwickshire men's team after he stepped up to the role of Assistant Coach for the 2022 season.

The Club has expanded Trott’s position following his work with the squad on a consultancy basis last year.

The impact of the former Bears and England batsman was significant as the club advanced towards an LV= Insurance County Championship and Bob Willis Trophy double.

Trott’s first arrival at Warwickshire, as a young batsman in 2001, transpired to be a great long-term fit for both parties. From the day of his debut century against Sussex at Edgbaston, he was taken to the Bears’ hearts and the feeling is mutual. He is delighted to be playing an enhanced role in the back-room team.

“I am very excited to be spending more time with the lads going forward,” Trott said. “It follows on from last season when I did a certain amount of days in the year and it went quite well.

“I chatted to Farby and laid out my intentions and we went through his ideas and came up with this role which is great. I am keen to be around the guys as much as possible this summer.

“It was a fantastic achievement by them to win the championship last year and now the challenge is to back that up with a strong season in all formats. Warwickshire have some exciting players in white-ball cricket and we definitely should be challenging in that form of the game.

“It’s an exciting time for the club with some very good young players coming through and others who have been with the club for a while, so I think we have a good balance and hopefully we can challenge on all fronts.

Jonathan Trott

“We are going back to  two divisions in the championship, so you have got to play a bit more cricket so consistency is going to be key and it will be important to start well.”

Trott retired from playing in 2018 with 19,752 runs, 90 wickets and 236 catches for Warwickshire under his belt. Few men ever wore a Bears shirt with greater passion.

“Edgbaston is my home,” he said. “As a coach, certainly for me as I am very ambitions as a coach, you will always go off and spend time in places, whether it’s Trent Rockets or Scotland or with England, but you always know you have your base. It’s important to remember where you’ve come from, in my case Cape Town and, for the vast majority of my career, Birmingham. I am very proud of where I came from and who I played for and that will never change.”

Among those to benefit from Trott’s input over the coming months will be young batter Rob Yates whose relishing of a challenge and ability to bat time is redolent of Trott as a player.

The pair worked together with England Lions in Australia before Christmas.

“I worked closely with Yatesy during that trip and he was very impressive on his first Lions tour,” Trott said. “He is growing as a cricketer all the time and hopefully will be even better for the Bears next season.”