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Mental health problems of cricketers.

Kirkut

International Regular
How many cricketers have had depression or any mental health problem due to playing too much cricket?

India has been playing 4 test series followed by tri odi series and then the world cup. With few days break, they will start playing IPL commencing on April 8th. How do cricketers manage so much workload? Doesn't it affect them mentally?

If not cricket, is there any example of excessive workload in any sport causing mental health problems?
 

NasserFan207

International Vice-Captain
It exists. Less so at the top of the game than lower levels. Not sure excessive workload causes depression so much as travel and time away from family/friends. Obviously certain individuals suffer more than others.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
How many cricketers have had depression or any mental health problem due to playing too much cricket?

India has been playing 4 test series followed by tri odi series and then the world cup. With few days break, they will start playing IPL commencing on April 8th. How do cricketers manage so much workload? Doesn't it affect them mentally?

If not cricket, is there any example of excessive workload in any sport causing mental health problems?
I don't know if you can call it a sport or not but apparently WWE wrestlers have a bad time with this from what i hear.
 

AndyZaltzHair

Hall of Fame Member
Don't know if it's entirely related to playing too much cricket, I can recall Trescothick, Yardy and Trott suffered
 
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WalkingWicket

State 12th Man
I remember it happened to Mike Yardy (English) during the 2011 WC. Trescothick has also suffered from that kind of thing.

EDIT: Guy above me got it.
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
There must be special features about cricket, which in the main I would think is the time spent away from home and loved ones, that enabled David Frith to write a whole book on the game's suicides
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Fred,

Can you tell us anything about depression pre-1990 in cricket, did many talk about it in their biographies etc.?
 

ImpatientLime

International Regular
most known cases have been of english players, correct?

without meaning to cause offence, is there more of a stigma and unwillingness to talk about it in other parts of the world? i can't imagine the uk is the only place where this happens. maybe i'm missing some other recent examples. mark vermuelen has had well documented problems come to think of it.
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
most known cases have been of english players, correct?

without meaning to cause offence, is there more of a stigma and unwillingness to talk about it in other parts of the world? i can't imagine the uk is the only place where this happens. maybe i'm missing some other recent examples. mark vermuelen has had well documented problems come to think of it.
Yes most are English but there was very little professional cricket anywhere else in the world until comparatively recently
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Fred,

Can you tell us anything about depression pre-1990 in cricket, did many talk about it in their biographies etc.?
Tresco's was the first autobiography to tackle it that I recall, although I think Crusoe Robertson-Glasgow's may have as well - but biographies have - David Foot's of Walter Hammond and Harold Gimblett two very good ones. There are also biographies of Arthur Shrewsbury and Drewy Stoddart and a fair amount on Aubrey Faulkner - in fact I've written about Hammond, Gimblett and Faulkner myself - there must be others too
 

watson

Banned
Cricket can sometimes be a killer of a game (2011)

........David Frith, the knowledgeable and prolific cricket writer, has written several books on the high incidence of cricket players committing suicide. His first book on the topic covered 80 cricket suicides. In later books he covered 150 suicides, and he says he is coming across new cases all the time.

Frith’s conclusion is this: “Cricket, because it is so monopolistic, because it swallows you up before spitting you out, because it enfolds you and plays on the mind, filling you with confusion and self-doubt, is by far the major sport for suicides.”

This argument that the nature of cricket itself is somehow involved with the suicide rate of cricketers is keenly disputed. Peter Roebuck and Mike Brearley insist that the game of cricket itself is not to blame.“It is not cricket,’ Brearley says, “which causes suicides: people kill themselves for reasons that are internal to themselves and their histories.”

But Frith, who is the undoubted expert on this disturbing aspect of the sport, makes the point that cricket is a one-chance game that tears at the nerves of players who may be susceptible to these pressures: “Golfers, footballers, tennis players and boxers all have an assurance that they have a chance to recover from an early defeat in the game but cricket embodies uncertainty on the grand scale and on a relentless daily basis.”

I believe that there is something in this.

Anyone who has played cricket knows how stunning is the finality of a dismissal or a dropped catch. One minute you are out there batting, then you are walking back to the pavilion. If only you could have faced that ball again.

Suicide in cricket - a hidden phenomena | The Roar
George Arlington
David Bairstow
Sid Barnes
Cyril Bland
William Bruce
Frederick Bull
Jim Burke
Shane Clements
Thomas Cook
Fen Cresswell
Montague Druitt
Aubrey Faulkner
Barry Fisher
Harold Gimblett
George Griffith
Glen Hall
Jack Iverson
Danny Kelleher
Stuart Leary
George Mirehouse
Arthur Thomas Myers
Joe Partridge
Harry Pickett
Arthur Povey
Halima Rafiq
Albert Relf
R. C. Robertson-Glasgow
Peter Roebuck
Berry Sarbadhikari
Mark Saxelby
William Scotton
Arthur Shrewsbury

Category:Cricketers who committed suicide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Druitt one of those suspected of being Jack the Ripper - Les Hylton may not be cricket's only murderer, although I think the theory has been largely discredited now
 

Adders

Cricketer Of The Year
Not sure if he has gone public with it any where else but Andrew Flintoff revealed quite openly on Australia's "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" that he had suffered from depression throughout his career........he no longer drinks at all as a result.

He said he felt it was widespread in cricket and sport in general.
 

flibbertyjibber

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Can't remember where I read it but there was an article a few years back that said cricketers and jockeys suffered most from depression out of sportsmen. If i stumble across it i will link it.
 

kiwiviktor81

International Debutant
Wonder how this compares to soccer goalkeepers, another sport in which the most minuscule of errors can lead to disaster.
 

OverratedSanity

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Yeah Bravo's having some issues too. Went "missing" for a while and the WICB weren't able to reach him.

Must be tough mentally being a batsman, especially imo. Sometimes you're working hard, doing almost everything right when it comes to your technique, but you suddenly get a ball which you can do nothing about or just lose your concentration for a millisecond and it's back in the pavillion. And you go back to waiting another 1-2 days for your next opportunity, if you even get one. It's pretty easy to get stuck in a rut and let these things take a toll on you mentally, because you feel you're not doing much wrong but it's just not happening. Add to this several-month-long tours away from your family in alien conditions, where a loss of form can be difficult to bounce back from and you've got an environment, where mental issues have to be pretty common.
 

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