Mental health in cricket

"he should grow a pair" , "real men don't cry", "what an overreaction" , "just get on with it and play cricket"

Cricket fan or not, you would have heard the above phrases countless times throughout your life. If you yourself have used the above phrases, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Mental health is highly stigmatized, even more so when it is the mental health of men that is the topic of discussion. Having emotion is seen as a "feminine characteristic". Men that express emotion are mocked and often told "to grow a pair". Even though having emotions is viewed as a "feminine characteristic", when women express their emotions, they are often told they are overreacting and are crazy.

Over the past year and a half, the world has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Like all other sectors and facets, sports was heavily impacted by the pandemic. With the necessary bio-bubble requirements, cricketers have been spending large amounts of time isolated, away from their homes and families, away from nature and the outdoors. This has obviously taken a toll on the mental, emotional and physical well-being of cricketers. The effects of the pandemic have become increasingly clearer and clearer as the months go by. Players such as Glen Maxwell, Ben Stokes and Quinton de Kock have all taken mental health breaks away from cricket over the past year.

As a society and as cricket fans, we are extremely unforgiving. We often tend to forget that cricketers are human beings with families and lives outside of cricket. We have to understand and respect that. It is our duty to rid ourselves of the stigma attached to mental health. In 2021, mental health discussions cannot STILL be viewed as taboo. Human beings have created mind-blowing technologies but somehow, we struggle to move past racism, gender discrimination and mental health stigma.

We have to do better. We have to be better. We cannot expect others to change society for us, we have to be the change we want to see in the world (cliche, I know :) )

Having emotions does NOT make you weak, it just makes you human. We cannot judge men for showing emotion and then condemn toxic masculinity. Glen Maxwell, Quinton de Kock and Ben Stokes taking mental health breaks does not make them weak. It makes them strong and brave. The more cricketers and the role models we look up to, speak up and dismantle the stigma, the more change we will see in society.