Debuting at 39, Nottinghamshire's Peter Trego is raring to go for his new county

SAM DALLING: Trego is 39 years old now. An outsider might be forgiven for thinking the sands of time were running out on his career. That may have been in days gone past; it’s no longer the case in the modern era

When measured against a pandemic, sport can seem futile. That’s because it is. The world has changed immeasurably in the space of a few short months: there have been tens of thousands of tragedies, and there is still some way to go.

But, in the not-too-distant future, work towards the new normal will have to get underway. And there’s a strong argument that, as part of that, sport can provide light relief.

That’s why Nottinghamshire's Peter Trego has urged a common-sense approach to finding a safe way to bring fans back into the fold sooner rather than later – although he’s not holding out much hope for any immediate results.

With the international game set to return next month, the signs are that some form of county season might be possible in late summer.

However, if England’s upcoming series against the West Indies is to be the barometer, the turnstiles of county grounds across the land are likely to locked for the foreseeable future.

“Watching county cricket is social distancing” – or so the one-liner of the cricketing summer goes. Wise crack as it might be, there’s an element of truth behind it.

Allowing spectators into grounds while still adhering to current government guidelines would be far from impossible and Trego believes that finding a way to accommodate spectators would boost the morale of the nation’s cricket-lovers.

“Social distancing is obviously going to be quite an important part of everyone’s lives for the next few years, but that is something we are going to have to get on with," he tells The Cricketer.

“There are plenty of grounds that are so big you don’t really get a feeling of the crowd anyway, so I don’t feel necessarily for the players.

“Four-day cricket gets a bit of a bad press, but people have genuinely missed even the simple things of flicking on the text to see what the scorecard is looking like.

“So, I feel for the cricket-lovers that can’t go and watch. We are playing in 8,000 to 25,000-seater stadiums with two thousand in there at a time.

“With any level of common sense, you can social distance and watch the game.

“But it’s just the world we live in. You could easily sit each other four seats apart – happy days, get on with, but that probably won’t be the case.”

When the covers are finally rolled off, Trego is set to make his debut in Nottinghamshire colours. Having spent the lion's share of his career in the west country, the allrounder signed for the Trent Bridge outfit over the winter.

While his new side did reach the semi-finals of both white-ball competitions, they sunk almost without a trace in the County Championship last season.

Having failed to register a victory – securing a paltry 16 batting points all year – it’s difficult to argue their demotion to the lower tier was anything but deserved.

Such a poor outcome can at least be partially attributed to a loss of senior pros, with a raft of full internationals – James Taylor, Chris Read, Brendan Taylor and Michael Lumb amongst them – all having left the club in recent years.

And the right-hander – who believes he’s got plenty left in the tank – has revealed the coaching staff’s desire to plug the experience gap in the dressing room was key to his decision to venture to the East Midlands.

^{Trego left Somerset at the end of the 2019 season}

“Mick Newell and Peter Moores at the helm massively value what a senior player brings – not just consistent performance but the other parts of the game,” he said.

“Ultimately it lends to having an environment – whether you are staying there or going to – with an open mind.

“From the first phone call he (Moores) completely got where I was, albeit that I was doing a bit of a salesman’s job on myself!

“The talent level of the young players in the squad is right up there, but they feel that through the spine of the team having the Broads, Patels, Mullaneys and hopefully now your Pete Tregos gels the squad.”

“I’m genuinely going up there to have the best years of my career – I’m under no illusion that would be difficult.

“My mind feels like I know my game very well and I haven’t let me body fade – hopefully that is a pretty good combination."

Trego is 39 now. An outsider might be forgiven for thinking the sands of time were running out on his career. That may have been in days gone past; it’s no longer the case in the modern era.

Fitness isn’t just about running laps – it’s about speed, strength, agility and mental endurance, all attributes Trego was taught to focus on by a certain Justin Langer during the Australian's time in Taunton 14 years ago.

“Pre-JL I relied on being quite a fit person and mentally tough when it came to fitness,” he said.

“Throughout my young career I’d love a beer and probably carry a few extra pounds, but you’d never put me in the ‘he’s not fit for purpose’ category.

“But JL – and in fairness Andy Hurry – taught me to take it to the next level. Whatever JL would do would always be in denomination of 100. As a batsman that’s your benchmark so when I train its 10 sets of 10.

“When I’m doing my endurance stuff I’m just out there focussing on being good at things being uncomfortable. My physical strength trains me to be quite strong mentally. I’m able to zone out from the other things and focus on the pain. I’m proud to be able to say I don’t think for the last 10 years I could question my work ethic.

“Whether I had a good or bad day on the field, I can look in the mirror and know physically I couldn’t have done more.”

^{The allrounder has made 25 centuries in first-class and List A cricket}

More than two decades have passed since a teenage Trego took on the students Oxford University in his first-class debut at Taunton.

Across two stints at Somerset – his time at the county bookending brief spells at Kent and Middlesex in the early noughties – the hard-hitting batsman notched up more than 500 appearances. Time and again, he proved himself one of domestic cricket’s leading allrounders.

But despite racking up more than 15,000 runs and claiming just shy of 550 wickets for Somerset – and picking up the PCA’s MVP award in 2012 – that elusive England nod never came.

He came close in 2010 when making six one-day appearances for the England Lions – including a man-of-the-match performance in one clash against the West Indies where he made a blistering 73 with the bat and picked up 5 for 20 with the ball.

And he got closer still when, off the back of an impressive white-ball season of more than 1,000 runs in 2013, then-chairman of selectors Geoff Miller called to say a strong finish to the season would earn him a spot on an international tour that winter.

Trego duly obliged and believed he’d done enough to secure a seat on the plane only for heartache to follow swiftly after.

“Geoff Miller phones me 10 days before the end of the county season – I was flying, having a really good season,” he said.

“I was pushing my daughter around Asda when the phone rang and didn’t recognise the number – it was the chairman of selectors.

“He said finish the season strong and you’ll be on an England tour which was obviously really, really exciting.

“The last game of the season was against Nottinghamshire. I thought, sat in my chair, that I’d nailed it: ‘I’m going to be on an England tour.’ And I think Geoff was replaced as chairman of selectors that week.

“That was the end of that. You have to get to a point where you laugh about it. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a subjective thing international selection, if you’re not favoured by the right people you’re kind of buggered.”

^{Trego joined Nottinghamshire ahead of this season}

The side that Trego leaves behind are on an upward trajectory, having last year finally shaken off the unwanted bridesmaids tag and secured a first trophy since 2005.

That came in the form of the Royal London Cup, with victory against Hampshire ending a streak of five straight defeats in domestic finals, all of which came in a three-season spell between 2009 and 2011.

Tom Abell’s troops also lost out on a maiden County Championship crown by the slimmest of margins in 2019, the weather putting a dampener on their attempts to force a result against eventual victors Essex in the final round of fixtures.

But with a smart approach to cricket and the likes of Jack Leach, Dom Bess, Lewis Gregory and the Overton twins beginning to peak, Trego believes his former county are well set to challenge again in the future.

“It has been great to see young guys come into the team, have their struggles, work their game out and then blossom," he said.

“A lot of those guys now – even those that aren’t in the England team – are making their way towards their potential.

“They aren’t there yet, but they will become dominant cricketers. I don’t think it is necessarily as pure a cricket team as it was in the past, but it is now a very smart cricket team that plays the home ground advantage brilliantly. The home win stats are phenomenal. And the [Jack] Leach effect has been incredible.

“Even though it is very assisted to the spinner, he goes out there in fourth innings with the pressure of having to take six wickets to get them home.

“With the emergence of [Dom] Bess as well, it’s a great formula to getting a lot of points on the board which is why Somerset are doing so well in the Championship.”

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