CAPE TOWN - BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has caused an uproar by stating that overseas players "just give up on mental health".
Ganguly, commenting on the challenges players face at the moment by moving from one bio-bubble environment to another in the current Covid-19 climate, further claimed Indian cricketers are "more tolerant" to deal with movement restricted solely to the hotel and grounds.
"I feel we Indians are a bit more tolerant than overseas (cricketers). I've played with a lot of Englishmen, Australians, West Indians, they just give up on mental health," the former India captain said at a virtual press conference ahead of the IPL starting this week.
"In the last six-seven months, with so much cricket being going on in the bio-bubble it's so tough. Just going from the hotel room to the ground, handle the pressure and come back to the room and then get back to the ground again, it's an absolutely different life."
ALSO READ: ICC readies pandemic backup plan for T20 World Cup
Bio-bubble fatigue has become synomous with cricket during the pandemic with players regularly speaking about the challenge of performing at optimal levels while under the constant restrictions of quarantines and bio-bubbles, often away from their families for long stretches at a time.
This has led to England fast bowler Mark Wood being the first to withdraw from the IPL, just hours before the auction in February. He was followed by Australian wicket-keeper batsman Joshua Philippe informing his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore that he was not coming.
ALSO READ: ’Laughing Quinton de Kock distracted Fakhar Zaman’ before controversial run-out
They have since been joined by two fellow Australians Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazelwood shortly before having to travel to India.
All five Proteas competing in the IPL, namely Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi arrived in India on Monday and are currently in quarantine.
Ganguly also made reference to the Australians pulling out of their Test tour to South Africa, shortly after India had visited them Down Under.
Australia's withdrawal due to "unacceptable level of health and safety risk to players, support staff and the community" particularly incensed Cricket SA at the time as every possible safety measure was put in place for the tourists.
"Look at the Australian team, they were supposed to go to South Africa for a Test series after India played there. They refused to go there...
"And always there's this scare of Covid. 'Hope it's not me the next time'. You have to stay positive, you have to train yourself mentally. All of us have to train ourselves mentally so that the good will happen. It boils down to training," Ganguly said.
@ZaahierAdams
IOL Sport