Former England bowler Tim Bresnan made a shocking revelation that he and teammate Jonathan Trott were drugged in Hong Kong when they were in the city for the Super sixes tournament in 2008.
Speaking on the Shackles Are Off podcast, Bresnan spoke about his mental health issues and shared the incident.
“Got drugged in Hong Kong. We’re in Hong Kong Sixes, myself, and Jonny Trott. And we got spiked. They reckon it was ketamine, there were traces in our system. But we got to Loughborough and got the drugs tested and stuff, the voluntary ones. I’d lost the plot by then anyway,” Bresnan said.
“That was the … end of the 2008 summer. And then I had that whole winter off, had a really good pre-season with Yorkshire, in Abu Dhabi. It was like walking back into an environment with all your mates … it was like a stag does, and really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed my cricket again. I played my first Test in 2009 of that summer,” he added.
Tim Bresnan was taken to cleaners in his debut series, especially by Sanath Jayasuriya and he spoke how he coped with mental stress due to that hard beginning to his England career.
“I’ve struggled in the past, mental health-wise, don’t mind saying. Had a couple of decent-sized wobbles actually, and I’d just gone, ‘That’s enough for me, I don’t want to play cricket anymore’ kind of thing,” he said.
“I had a big one after the series I made my debut actually [against Sri Lanka in 2006], got pumped everywhere by [Sanath] Jayasuriya. And I couldn’t actually bowl to a left-hander for about three years after that. I just got nervous every time a left-hander came,” recalled Bresnan.
