Cricket probably one of the worst sports for mental health – Suzie Bates

At a pivotal time in women’s cricket – with increased exposure, game time, attention and hence, viewership – New Zealand’s senior pro Suzie Bates has spoken out about the toll it can have on the mental health of the cricketers. Bates, who is on cricket duty with the national team and/or for her club for nine months in a year, went as far as to say that cricket, in her opinion, is probably one of the worst sports for mental health.

“I think previously in women’s cricket that [mental health] wasn’t such a major issue. You have your work life, or your university life, and then you went on tour for maybe three or four weeks then came back into that routine. Now there is your life with cricket and you are away. Also when you come back you are not necessarily coming back to work and study to get away from it, you are coming back to train again,” Bates was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz.

Bates, who has been in the international circuit for nearly 12-and-a-half years now, stressed on the importance for cricketers to plan their time away from the game well.

“Cricket has definitely brought a lot more challenges than it used to when I first started to play. You do, a little bit, just get used to it. Which perhaps isn’t always healthy, but I know the first year I played in England I absolutely loved going over to the England summer and playing over there. It was a new environment, a fresh environment.

“I remember coming home and it was the start of our season and I was like, whoa, I feel like I am at the end of my season and I have got to start again. I remember the first year I really struggled with that. After the first year I learned that I had to be a lot better planned with my time off and actually block out times to completely get away from cricket,” Bates said.

Bates also felt the current system is particularly taxing on the younger players coming through the ranks as they are exposed to gruelling schedules for the first time in their careers and forced to adjust and learn on the go if they are to make stay in the game, instead of coming prepared from before.

“Sometimes we will get girls who come into that environment at 24 and they have never been exposed to the professional environment because the women’s programme isn’t like that. So there is kind of a bit of a shock and there is some learning as you go, rather than being ready when you hit that environment.”

Bates’s comments are particularly relevant at a time when another senior cricketer in the women’s circuit – England’s Sarah Taylor – has had an anxiety relapse that will keep her out of the Women’s World T20 later this year.

Like many of her peers in both men’s and women’s cricket, Bates concedes that cricket at the highest level becomes a lot more about mental skills than the physical ones, specially in times of poor individual performances that directly impact the team’s fortunes.

“You do learn to deal with it but there are some tough times especially when you or your team aren’t going well. It is a lot harder to be away then, than when everything is rosie and you are winning,” Bates reckoned.

In Taylor’s case, she received words of support from coach Mark Robinson, who said: “All of our players’ health and well-being is the most important thing and we must never lose sight of that in the intense and demanding world of professional sport.”

As for New Zealand, Bates feels the cricket board is starting to realise the importance of managing the mental health of its women cricketers.

“There is a handful of their female players constantly playing around the world and they are starting to realise they need to manage that a bit better as well,” Bates said.

© Cricbuzz