What comes to mind when you think of cricket? Perhaps it’s an idyllic scene of an English village green – people sitting on deckchairs and plaid blankets tucked into a traditional cricket tea while I watched mild-mannered players in sparkling whites shout “howzat?!” every now and then?
His stereotype a nobleman, essentially English However, sports can be light years away from reality.
Except for one potentially punishment – and exclusive – The work culture, cricket requires tremendous endurance, resilience and skill. It is such a demanding sport, in fact, that Test cricket is often referred to as “the ultimate testResearch from Loughbrough University found that a career in professional cricket has “highs and lows that strain a player’s mental health and lead to mental health problems and reduced performance”.
Freddie Flintoff’s latest documentaryField of Dreams On Tour – a follow-up to the original 2022 series for which he formed a cricket team from an unlikely group of teenagers in his hometown of Preston, UK – is a reminder of the complexity of the sport’s relationship with the mental health of its players.
A former international cricketer and manager of the England cricket team, Flintoff is no stranger to mental health suffers – and he is be said publicly about his experience of depression and his struggle with bulimia during and after his cricket career.
The second season of Field of Dreams chronicles Flintoff’s journey as he takes his team on a cricket tour of India, following their ups and downs and showing how sport and cricket can help – and sometimes harm – mental health.
Flintoff and his team are not alone in facing mental health challenges. Cricket’s history is littered with cases of mental health crises – even suicide.
For more than thirty years, a cricket writer David Frith researched suicides among cricketers, publishing two books on the subject. His 2001 book concluded that “cricket has an alarming suicide rate. Among international players for England and many other countries it is well above the national average for all sports.”
Nature or nurture
Frith believed it was “the loss” of cricket that most influenced the players – and he could be on to something.
A UK study found that “all participants reflected negatively on the end of their careers, with a sense of loss and dissatisfaction characterizing the post-retirement period.”
Many elite athletes have a strong but narrow sense of identity – sport is huge part of who he is. Once athletes retire from sports, they may feel like they are losing a part of themselves along with their work. The transition from active player to retirement may be similar to a grieving process. However, a study suggests that the risk of depression and suicide can be reduced by a supportive family, which increases players’ sense of identity outside of the sport.
Elite athletes struggling with withdrawal from sports they may turn to alcohol, drugs and gambling to cope with the sense of loss. 2023 study suggests that while athletes are not necessarily at greater risk of suicide than the general population, various factors such as abuse of performance-enhancing substances, sports-related stressors, sports injuries, drug abuse, emotional disorders, mental and physical illnesses in sports, put them at risk of suicide during active careers and retirement.
Opening to close stigma down
But the stigma around mental health is slowly collapsing as more and more players talk about their experiences of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
In response to the death of retired cricketer Graham Thorpe in August 2024, former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa has opened up about his mental health issues. He said,
Recently I heard about Graham Thorpe and many cricketers who ended their lives due to depression. Even in the past, we have heard of athletes and cricketers taking their own lives due to clinical depression. I’ve been there myself. I know for sure it is not a pretty journey. It’s exhausting, it’s exhausting, and it’s heavy. It feels like a burden.
Uthappa is not alone.
Retired cricketer Phil Tufnell has spoken about his struggles with mental health, saying the national team “didn’t know how to help players who had mental health issues during his career”. Indian international cricketer Virat Kholi also has was open for his mental health during a tour of England in 2014 when he suffered from the yips. Kholi said:
And still getting out of bed and just getting dressed for the game and going out there and going through it, knowing you were going to fail was something that ate at me. It just completely destroyed me.
But not all former players are critical of the sport’s response to players’ mental health. In 2016, former professional cricketer Graeme Fowler spoke about his experience of clinical depression, arguing that Cricket is way ahead of other sports in dealing with mental health.
Support, however, is showing to be reactive – provided when there is already a problem rather than preventative measures being implemented for players from the start of their careers.
But players’ willingness to open up about their experiences could make all the difference.
In 2022, England Test captain Ben Stokes returned from a mental health break. “It was like I had a glass bottle into which I kept pouring my feelings. Eventually, it got too full and it just popped,” Stokes said he told BBC Breakfast.
For example, there are growing mental health initiatives in cricket. Charity Opening of cricket founded in memory of wicketkeeper Alex Miller, who committed suicide in 2012.
While Flintoff and his colleagues are doing the hard work to break the stigma, there is still a responsibility on cricket authorities to create supportive environments that nurture the mental health of players during and after their cricket career.
If you or anyone you know needs expert advice on the issues raised in this article, the NHS provides list of local helplines and support organisations.
