Jonathan Trotts book begins in a toilet. Not for him the glamorous surroundings of sun-streaked cricket grounds or open-top buses, instead the symbolic confinement of the smallest room. Unguarded is about how he got there, and how he found his way out. His first page, set after his penultimate Test innings, a three-ball nought in Barbados, is unsparing. As he stares in the bathroom mirror he notes his lined face and chipped teeth: My hair had gone, and somewhere along the way, the fun had too. Batting had become torture.As with KP: The Autobiography, published by Kevin Pietersen on his exit from international cricket, Trotts account is a state-of-mind book. The exhaustion and frustration are fresh on the page. While this adds a certain urgency, I think its a book that Trott will look back on as a snapshot rather than a truly reflective and rounded vision of who he was and what he accomplished.It is far better than Pietersens book, which circled around the same subjects like a tongue on a rough tooth, to the point that it became unreadable, but that circularity of thinking is here. Trotts preoccupations are with how hes perceived, whether that is by his fellow players, by commentators and pundits or by the wider world. Perhaps George Dobell, his excellent collaborator, sensed as much. The decision to include some fairly long contributions gathered from Kevin Pietersen, Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower serve the dual purpose of mitigating Trotts insularity and providing the reassurance that he is not just respected by his peers but held in great affection as a person too. He is a friend to everyone on that divided list.This is a book with the adroit structure of memoir, told in the voice of autobiography. The chapters are thematic, each set in a particular place and time, so we zig-zag from Barbados to Brisbane, touching down in the Cape Town of his childhood and The Oval of his triumphant first Test.Dobell deftly sketches the cricket-obsessed kid with some warm vignettes; the young Trott and his father playing on adjacent pitches, leaning on their bats and smiling at one another; his driven mother laying into his bowling at a school parents v pupils match; the sports shop he grew up in, which left him unable to bear an untidy grip on a bat handle - as a Test player he goes through his team-mates bags and adjusts them while theyre not looking. It darkens as Trott is sent to a sports psychologist when he reacts violently to his first run of bad scores, and by the time of his Test debut, capped by an Ashes century, he is entirely defining himself by the game he plays: It was everything I had ever wanted, and everything I dreamed it would be.England, with Trott as their rock-solid, iron-hard No. 3, climb the mountain to world No. 1. Its a high that lasts until the final of the Champions Trophy in 2013, when the disappointment of that game induces his precipitous fall.Fear is an unexamined, sometimes unacknowledged, subject in cricket and other sports, maybe because to do so implies a lack of courage. That is daft, not least because courage doesnt really exist without fear. But its manifestation in cricket drives at the heart of Trotts book. The professional batsman trains incessantly to resist and repel very fast, short-pitched bowling. They are not afraid of the ball in the same way that a boxer is not afraid of being punched. But like a boxer, damage accumulates, through a fight, through a career, through all of the unseen hours of sparring and training. There comes a moment when the physical skills dip and decline and the emotional energy required to withstand the challenge changes and deepens, and they no longer feel young and indomitable; instead anxiety seeps like water through a ceiling.In Trott and in many batsmen it begins as a kind of impugning of their masculinity. I felt I was being questioned as a man, he writes. I felt my dignity was being stripped away with every short ball I ducked or parried. It was degrading. Trott is confronted by a truly fearsome opponent exactly as he arrives at this moment in his life. Mitchell Johnson hits him on the head with a bouncer during the ODI in Edgbaston in 2013 and the trickle of anxiety becomes a flood. He breaks down on the field before the next game in Southampton and Ashley Giles has to pull him out with a back spasm, an excuse that reinforces Trotts perception that his anxiety is somehow shameful or weak. By the time the contest is transplanted to Brisbane, he is a sitting duck, his technique wrecked by an early movement across the stumps, his concentration disrupted by a headache, the anxiety manifesting now as a desire to crash his opponent out of the attack: normal circumstances have left town… I want to hit it. I want to smash it. I want to prove I can play this stuff.Johnson is the wrecking ball not just for Trott but for the storied team that is falling apart around him: Graeme Swanns elbow has gone, Matt Prior is struggling, Kevin Pietersen too; and their coach, Andy Flower, is responding in the only way he knows, by pushing everyone harder. Trotts account of the disintegration is urgent and moving, his voice and Pietersens harmonising on what went wrong (a minor theme of Unguarded is how clear and true Pietersens vision of England was - and it is expressed far better and more concisely here than in Pietersens own book).Trotts insecurities are deep in the bones of Unguarded. At the times of his greatest anxieties you want to stop reading, put an arm around him and tell him its all going to be okay. As well as the journey in and out of a toilet, he begins a less steady one from a life and a personality defined by being a cricketer to the more rounded years beyond. I hope that he knows he takes many admirers with him, and this raw, sometimes visceral account of a modern sportsmans life will surely bring him more.Unguarded: My Autobiography By Jonathan Trott Sphere, 2016 288 pages, ￡20 http://www.eaglesrookiestore.com/Eagles-Corey-Clement-Jersey/ . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. http://www.eaglesrookiestore.com/Eagles-Alshon-Jeffery-Jersey/ .S. Open champion Justin Rose birdied the first hole with a blind shot he hit to a foot of the pin, and he stayed in front Tuesday until he completed a 4-under 67 for a two-shot lead over Jason Dufner in PGA Grand Slam of Golf. http://www.eaglesrookiestore.com/T-Shirts/ . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. http://www.eaglesrookiestore.com/Eagles-Ron-Jaworski-Jersey/ . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. http://www.eaglesrookiestore.com/Eagles-Isaac-Seumalo-Jersey/ . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Socceroo great and Melbourne City striker Tim Cahill has added his voice to the cacophony calling for A-League expansion.And hes not afraid of another Melbourne or Victorian club - possibly South Melbourne - coming into the competition on Citys doorstep.Enthusiasm behind expansion has pushed A-League chiefs to confirm their intent to bring in two teams for the 2018/19 season, with a formal process to be confirmed in the new year.Cahill said his experience from playing professionally in England, China and the US showed him the 10-team league was too lean.Theres not enough teams, he told Fox Sports, citing the need to develop more young talent.The more teams, the more competition, the more players we have coming through and the more of a meat market we have for our young Australians.The 37-year-old also said he was against below-par teams playing finals and getting in the back door and winning the league, as could happen with a six-team finals series with a 10-team league.But Cahills ambition for the sport was the primary driver behind his support for the expansion process.The fans need to be fed an appetite of football. The players do too, he said.Where those clubs should be is anyones guess - and there have been plenty of guesses - but Cahill said the most important thing was a smart process.ddddddddddddIf theres another team in Melbourne - no problems. If theres another team in Sydney - no problems. A team in Tasmania, he said.We need clear criteria for what they can produce so they can have that portfolio and we know what theyve got to aim for.One of the threats to expansion is existing clubs concerned for their own growth attempting to curb the arrival of new sides.City might have more to worry about than most on that front, given their non-derby matches average below 10,000 people this season - even with Cahills arrival.The veteran striker said he could feel growth in the wings.You look at Melbourne Victory and you have to respect what theyve grown, he said.Were not in a competition for their fans or trying to take their fans. Were trying to build our own culture.When you win trophies and you win derbies it helps. Its still very early stages as to where we want to be.Were trying to do it the right way. And its ruffling a few feathers. But its not out of disrespect to the league or anything we play against. Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Online Wholesale Jerseys From China Cheap Jerseys 2020 Cheap Jerseys Online NFL Jerseys Cheap ' ' '