Australia pacer Jhye Richardson has revealed his struggles with mental health during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. The pacer was part of KL Rahul-led Punjab Kings with Mohammed Shami and Chris Gayle as his teammates.
“A lot of it started during COVID. My trip to the IPL – I left home not in the headspace that I probably should have been,” Richardson told cricket.com.au.
“Then things sort of hit the fan while I was away, and everything with COVID and not being able to get home and stuff like that, it just toppled on top of each other.
“I think you don’t realise what sort of space you’re in until it becomes too much, which is why now I encourage a lot of young cricketers to work on their mental health – even if they think that they’re going okay.
“It’s like practicing for the short ball. The more you practice the short ball, the better you’re going to be at it when that situation arises out in the middle. It’s very similar off the field.”
“Everything just got to a point where there was some professional intervention that needed to happen. I’m not willing to go into a whole lot of detail, but I just landed in a spot where things were bad enough that I stepped back and said, ‘I can’t continue thinking the way that I am’ and (needed) to get a bit more education and knowledge about how the brain works.”
The pacer lauded the plethora of information available these days regarding the topic and the process to deal with the issues has become a lot easier.
“The resources within cricket nowadays make the process of dealing with mental health issues a lot easier and there is a lot more education there.
“But as someone who has dealt with anxiety, not just on the field but away from cricket and day-to-day living, it can be quite exhausting,” Richardson added.