Johannesburg – I felt sorry for Jonathan Trott as he left the Australian tour this week. Touring is not as much fun as many people reckon. Most folks don’t see what goes on with players beyond the match. From toss to stumps is all most viewers get to see, and so they make all their judgements about a player’s ability and character from that.
How wrong. How superficial.
Yes the players get to stay in some glamorous hotels. Yes, they play a sport and yes, they are well remunerated for doing so. But the demands placed on them by opponents, the media, teammates, administrators – are enormous and taxing.
Cricket’s a team game, but it’s probably the loneliest of the great team sports.
There is also a lot of time involved not actually playing, and that allows for a lot of thinking. About yourself, your teammates, the media, administrators …
And what happens, away from the spotlight, when players are alone in those glamorous hotel rooms?
While the South African team – certainly in the next 12 months – don’t have as hectic a schedule as England’s, the team’s management is acutely aware of the need for players to ‘get away’ from cricket. On the tour to the UAE, South Africa’s team management gave Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and JP Duminy time off, not so much because of the physical toil, but the need to remain mentally fresh.
That doesn’t only mean going to the beach or heading for the bush. Many of the current Proteas are married, have children and that places different demands on their time and their minds.
Providing them with the opportunity to be fathers and husbands is vital in creating the balance needed to help them perform on the field. Where there is often preaching about “team spirit” and the “collective” helping players cope with the unique demands (stresses) of the modern game, this needs to be done on an individual basis.
South Africa, aided perhaps by a less demanding schedule than England, have so far handled this process well. However there remains plenty of research that needs to be undertaken into the dangers of stress and depression in modern society, not just how it impacts on sportsmen and specifically cricketers.
Jonathan Trott is certainly not the first player and he won’t be the last to be impacted by stress brought upon him by the pressures of dealing with cricket in 2013.
And beyond the players, coaches and administrators, viewers and spectators need to be more aware of the dangers of stress-related illnesses.
What happens on the field is not all that there is to a cricketer.
The Star