By Rudi Webster
In the early nineteen eighties, I worked with many Australian Rules football coaches and spoke to them about the dangerous effects of high levels of continuous stress on the performance and the mental and physical health of their players. Concurrently, I tried to show them the benefits of adequate rest, relaxation and recreation at critical periods during the season.
Last October, Glenn Maxwell, an outstanding Australian player, took a mental health break from local and international cricket, claiming that self-imposed pressures and the stress of being constantly on the road ruined him mentally and physically. He said that when he decided to take time off for rest and rehabilitation he was pretty cooked. He added: “I think I was eight or nine months on the road living out of a suitcase, and that had been going on for four or five years, just constantly on the road and it all just caught up with me at that time.”
With guidance from medical professionals, quality rest and recreation and support and loving kindness from family, friends and colleagues he started to undergo a psychological revival. He is making good progress and will soon be on cricket fields around the world doing what he does best. In fact, just a few days ago he was one of the most expensive acquisitions in this year’s IPL auction.
When Brian Lara heard about Maxwell’s mental health problems he immediately sympathised with him and stated publicly that mental health issues in sport are real and serious. He then admitted that he himself struggled with similar mental health problems in the middle part of his illustrious career. He feels that debilitating mental issues should be identified and treated early.
Virat Kohli also understood Maxwell’s plight and admitted that he too experienced mental issues in England when James Anderson, England’s fast bowler, got the better of him.
From the start of his first-class cricket career, Lara was exposed to unrelenting pressure, not only from opponents but also from team members, administrators, the press and the cricket public whose expectations of him were sometimes too high. Breaking the world records for the highest scores in Test and first-class cricket catapulted him to superstardom at a young and tender age.
Unfortunately he was not properly trained to deal successfully with the huge demands, high expectations and intense pressures of superstardom. Moreover, he did not have a strong support network to guide and protect him from the disruptive effects of those pressures. The burden of captaincy compounded his problems. Inevitably, he succumbed to the inner and outer battles that he was constantly fighting.
Between 1995 and early 1999, the middle period of his career, he experienced despair, dejection, performance slumps and persistent conflict. Thinking was unclear, confidence and concentration were sub-standard and his actions and behaviour were at times questionable. During one of the West Indies tours things got out of hand and Lara threatened to retire from the game. Famous fast bowler Wesley Hall is quoted as saying that on a number of occasions Lara made it known that the game he once loved was now ‘ruining his life’.
In 1999, immediately after the disastrous tour of South Africa, I became a member of the West Indies support team and witnessed first hand Lara’s psychological rebirth during a period of good support and effective rest and recreation. With a clear, calm and rested mind he then embarked on a most productive period in his great and distinguished career. He made a double century against Australia in Jamaica, a virtuoso and match winning 153 in Barbados and another century in the fourth Test match in Antigua.
The mental issues that these sportsmen shared are in some ways similar to those of soldiers who suffered from battle fatigue or combat fatigue during World War 11.
In that war a great deal of research was done on the effects of chronic stress on the health and performance of soldiers who were exposed to continuous combat. In his book Battle For The Mind, William Sargant described the research findings of Sir Charles Symonds, a neurologist in the Royal Air Force. He found that the constant and prolonged tension of battle resulted in a breakdown of performance and a deterioration of the mental and physical health of many of the soldiers.
Sir Charles observed that in the early part of a campaign, most soldiers faced up to their fears and learned to control them. Soon after, they gained confidence and became competent in battle. But after three or four weeks of constant battle, the signs of combat fatigue began to set in. Soldiers then complained of continuous tiredness that was not relieved by sleep or rest. Later on, they became disoriented and could not tell the difference between their own guns and the enemy’s. They were easily startled and became tense and confused. Moody and irritable, they over-reacted to trivial stimuli and, as concentration and judgement declined, they lost control of their thinking, emotions and behaviour. Performance then plummeted.
Later on these signs and symptoms were replaced by dullness, apathy, physical slowness and even depression.
Today’s military prevent battle fatigue by limiting the exposure of their soldiers to continuous combat. After a few weeks of combat they are removed from the battlefield and are afforded a period of rest and recreation, after which they are returned to the battlefield.
Individuals with signs of battle fatigue are best treated by keeping them near to the front lines, giving them quality rest and recreation and administering sedatives or appropriate psychological techniques. As soon as recovery takes place the individuals should return to the battlefield. In some cases the military make use of troop rotations and grant leaves from the war zone.
With the busy schedules and heavy workloads of today’s cricketers, selectors, administrators and agents of players should look carefully at the problems of mental fatigue and mental health in cricket and should ensure that their players get adequate rest, recreation and support in order to stay fresh, alert and in control throughout the season.
