 Because Trott 's illness precluded his selection for the 1899 Australian team to England , the Australian captaincy passed to Joe Darling . On 8 May 1899 , Trott was committed to the Kew Asylum , a psychiatric hospital in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne . The facility opened in 1871 during an era when large asylums were in vogue . By the time of Trott 's admission , expert opinion had changed ; in January 1898 The Argus reported a specialist 's claim that the asylum was likely to make a patient , " just mad enough to be put under restraint " — that is , worse rather than better . Trott was recorded as suffering " dementia " and " alcoholism " , although there is little empirical evidence for either diagnosis . Cricket writer Gideon Haigh suggests that his symptoms would possibly be identified in modern times as depressive psychosis and treated with antipsychotics or electroconvulsive therapy . 
