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riopg777 The Mental Health Conundrum: How Top-Flight Cricketers Sidestep Pitfalls Of Pursuing Perfection

Virat Kohli has been vocal about his struggles with mental health in the past. Photo: X/ICC Virat Kohli has been vocal about his struggles with mental health in the past. Photo: X/ICC

Success in cricket is all about good concentration over sustained periods, across different passages of play. And good concentration can only come from good mental healthriopg777, which is all about feeling good about yourself, unburdened by cares and anxiety. (More Cricket News)

A feeling of lightness and enjoyment, and a freedom from stress over outcomes. Of savouring your ability and talent to do something well and enjoying the opportunities that come your way, without thinking too much about what might happen, or go wrong.

On the other hand, overthinking about different possibilities and scenarios, mostly negative, is what pulls us down and scatters our mind all over the place, leading to poor concentration and poor outcomes.

This is also the reason why young players at the beginning of their careers feel no fear and can play freely since their minds are largely uncluttered with doubts and worries at that stage. There is no history or reputation or weight of expectations to live up to. All that comes later.

All of which leads to overthinking, most of all, about the fear of failure and the consequences thereof, triggering a mental restlessness which often makes for poor shot selection and decision making in batters, which in turn, perpetuates a cocoon of negativity. In some players, it leads to a paralysis of effort and in some it leads to a near-permanent plateau of poor form, interspersed only with an occasional flash of the old brilliance, more so in the case of senior players nearing the end of their careers.

Good batting is all about being calm and in control of the negative self-talk that is forever a part of our mental make-up as human beings. A shutting out of the internal noise of criticism and negativity that plagues even the most talented amongst us. That tiny voice in our head that says we are not good enough.

The ability to do this is true mental strength and it comes from two things mainly. One,feeling good about your own preparation and training, and two, being ‘present,‘ which entails keeping your mind and thoughts totally concentrated on the task at hand, with laser sharp focus on that one ball coming at you, to the exclusion of all else.

Being alive only to the challenges posed by it.

But to be able to do so and exclude all other extraneous thoughts, one needs robust mental health which in a nutshell, is that elusive, ‘feel good’ sensation about oneself mentioned earlier.

Good preparation on the other hand entails a strong work ethic which includes practising all possible scenarios that you might possibly encounter in a match over and over again, and repeating everything that is in your control, with a monk-like devotion.

It is so important to retain the mental strength and positivity that this brings, in order to stay away from the ‘what am I doing wrong’ mindset, and focus instead on what I do well. Play to my strengths in other words, which is what the most successful cricketers in history have always done.

Stress-related worry and anxiety over outcomes almost always focuses on what went wrong and can go wrong again, paralysing the pathways and positive mental space that is needed for success to flourish. It leaves no room to focus on what has gone right thus far and will lead to continued success in the future.

And that is something so easy to lose sight of on long tours, especially in lonely hotel rooms with the immediate family away in another part of the world, and limited or no emotional contact with the people around you, most of whom are also your competitors for a place in the side.

More so after a few ‘bad’ knocks in the blinding glare of relentless public scrutiny that characterises the lives of international cricketers, pursuing the non-stop, year-round grind that is international cricket today.

This feeling of anxietyand loneliness gets so much worse when you often find yourself ‘alone in a crowd’ with your own despondent thoughts, in one corner of the dressing room after a failure,or in a lonely hotel room afterwards. It is prompted by the apprehension, anxiety and uncertainty that always surround a big occasion with high stakes.

The memorable India tour of Australia of 2020-21 during the post-Covid return of international cricket was a case in point. Then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly strongly felt that Indian cricketers should be accompanied by their families since many of them had already been alone in the IPL bio-bubbles of the time,66br for close to 80 days prior to that tour.

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The Australian tour would up that count further, to almost 145 days. And this was to be followed by a home series against England immediately on return, which would further extend that period of being alone.

Such prolonged isolation can create unprecedented demands on the mental health of players and the Indian team had rightly requested for a psychologist and motivational trainer in Australia to handle the challenges associated with it.

Around the same time, England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan had also spoken about the potential mental health hazards for cricketers spending long periods by themselves, and said that teams should henceforth expect and even encourage players to miss some tours in order to rest and recuperate mentally.

And star Australian paceman Mitchell Starc, along with former teammate and fellow member of the ‘150kph Express Speedsters Club’ Mitchell Johnson, had spoken out about the psychological effect of living in isolation in the constant glare of public scrutiny and criticism.

Johnson, the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Australian cricketing history, poignantly described how the criticism by fans and media would constantly resonate in his head, causing his game and self-belief to disintegrate as he brooded on it in lonely hotel rooms, far away from the emotional support system of his family.

Starc said much the same thing citing some sub-par performances, and vowed not to let “the noise get to him” again.

Coming from two tough, superbly skilled, successful athletes, these admissions were an eye-opener on what the best international cricketers go through mentally, when things are not going well. In the past, similar psychological pressures had ended prolific England opener Marcus Trescothick’s Test career and caused batter Jonathan Trott to return prematurely from an Ashes tour.

This is even more relevant today in a sport that tends to wallow in a false sense of failure. In this regard, England woman cricketer Heather Knight had once said, “When you bat, if you don’t score a 50 or a 100, you sometimes think you’ve failed.”

Which reminds me of a quote from a brilliant Justin Langer interview last year just before the World Cup, where he said: “If the pressure builds, you’ll never perform at your best. And I know that as a player. The harder you try, the worse it gets. And in big games, if things tighten up, you’re dead. But if you just stay relaxed…. My heroes were the West Indies, the early West Indies team which I watched while growing up. Like Viv Richards, they just seemed so chilled out all the time. They just knew they were talented.”

So, what is really important in achieving sustainable long-term success?

First and foremost it is psychological strength - confidence, mental toughness and motivation. A strong work ethic involving consistent effort and discipline, day after day, comes a close second.

And almost equally important are the support systems from close friends and family that boost a player’s mental resilience and help him or her to perform at the top of their game. Robust mental health, in other words.

These are issues that the International cricketing community will have to seriously look at, and find ways to address, in the near future.

The sooner the better.

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The views and opinions expressed are those of the author. The author is a veteran Wing Commander of the Indian Air Forceriopg777, who has played Ranji Trophy for Services and recently spoke at a media conclave on the importance of concentration and sound mental health in cricket.