Cricket must stand up to mental anxiety as a real issue

There are a lot of cricketers, like most other players who have no other way but to confess that they most often suffer from mental anxiety or OCD. Though they hardly reveal, but the bigger wins, wild popularity, champagne party in a 5-star hotel are not enough to keep your depression away.  Over the years the players from all sports are found to be dipped in depression, however successful he/she might be.

The rising pressure of Cricket world

The cricketer opened up about how cricket sometimes proved to be the worst sport for mental health. The cricket was opened to a subject that has for long been talked about in quiet tones. Lots of players dealt with depressions silently and opened up themselves only recently. The studies and researches had shown before the suicides in cricket are a very common.

In his books Silence of the Heart: Cricket Suicides and By His Own Hand David Frith traced the frightening stories of cricketers who committed suicide.

The question is, why such a depression that leads to suicide

According to the experts, the life that the cricketers have to live for most of the months in a year lead them depressions. Though the lifestyle is considered comfortable and luxurious together with hefty money offer. The off-field need is never fulfilled by their partner, but with more practice, nutritionist and the doctors. With all this, there is fever of four-walled confinement in a hotel or resort for days together.

Another reason for depression may be that while footballers or other sportsmen are vigorously occupied throughout a game, a cricketer, on the other hand, spend may hours be waiting in the dressing room. This leads to the chances of self-introspection and thereby depression over their previous performances.

While focus on the physical fitness of the sportsman gets importance, the matter of mental fitness gets less importance. Often, the players become the victims of their own success. With aging, the players start recapitulating their past performances fearing that they might not be able to achieve such a goal.