Mental Stress in Cricket: With the increasing demands of international cricket in the last few years, mental health risks have also followed suit. Cricket is fast becoming famous all over the world and every day we get to see the start of tournaments and leagues one after the other. IPL is dominant all over the world and seeing this, new leagues have been started in many countries. But somewhere, it is becoming too much for cricket fans and players. In pursuit of money, players are devoting equal amount of time to their country as well as to other leagues, due to which they are not able to manage their workload properly.
The result of this is that either the players get injured and go on a break for a long time or they are under mental stress. Mental stress has now become such a thing in cricket that players are quickly becoming its victims. This is because the players, who are playing matches one after the other, are not able to take time out for themselves nor are they giving rest to their body and mind. It is very difficult to maintain constant form, in such a situation players stretch themselves too much. As a result, there is a lot of pressure on their mind and they become victims of mental stress.
Glenn Maxwell has recently become its victim, RCB’s star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell suddenly decided to take an indefinite break from this IPL league. However, this is not the first time that a cricketer has taken such a decision due to mental fatigue. Many cricketers have done this before also.
Here’s the names of 5 players who became victims of mental stress-
5. Glenn Maxwell
RCB’s star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has decided to take an indefinite break from the IPL due to poor batting form. Maxwell announced the decision after being ruled out of RCB’s match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday. Maxwell blamed his mental and physical health problems for this.
4. Ishan Kishan
Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan returned to India in the middle of the South Africa tour. He was included in the team for white ball cricket but even after this he left the team and returned to his country. He cited mental stress as the reason and took leave citing this reason. After this, he was given a notice by BCCI to play Ranji but Ishan Kishan ignored it and came straight to play in IPL.
3. Virat Kohli
India’s star batsman Virat Kohli took a month’s rest during the Asia Cup 2022. Virat had opened up about his mental health challenge after returning from a month-long break just before the Asia Cup in 2022.
Talking about this in an interview, Virat Kohli said that despite being mentally weak and needing rest, he had worked hard but he was not able to give his 100 percent. However, he said that a month’s rest left him feeling refreshed.
2. Ben Stokes
England’s Test captain Ben Stokes, one of the best all-rounders, had decided to take an indefinite break from cricket in July 2021 to maintain his mental health. During this, he told that he has faced panic attacks many times in the past, so he had to take this step to manage stress.
1. Jonathan Trott
Jonathan Trott, who was a key player in the England cricket team’s lineup for most of his career, was once battling mental health issues. After playing only one Test, Trott decided to withdraw from the 2013 Ashes series. After this he completely stopped playing cricket for 16 months.
He tried to make a comeback in the year 2015 but due to Trott’s mental problems his career eventually ended suddenly as even the support system around him was not much aware of what was happening with the player.
