Former England wicketkeeper-batter Paul Nixon believes the total immersion of cricketers towards achieving their goals in the sport is the fundamental problem behind them facing mental health issues. Chats around the mental health of cricketers have been reignited after former England batter and coach Graham Thrope took his own life earlier this month, and his family revealed that he had been suffering from depression and anxiety for the past few years.
“I think you work so hard to try and achieve your goals and your dreams and your aspirations. And when you get the chance and you’re doing it and you’re living it, you are quite literally living the dream. But you’re not living it as in two hours here and two hours there.”
“You’re a bit like a farmer, you know, I’m a farmer’s son and I love watching Clarkson’s Farm because that was your life and it’s actually life. It’s not just a nine-to-five, it’s a life. It’s all day, all week. It’s all-consuming.”
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“You go to bed thinking about it and you sometimes stay up late thinking about it. When it’s your time, you enjoy it. When it’s other times, you try to enjoy everybody else’s success. But you have to immerse yourself in it to be successful,” said Nixon in an episode of ‘The Analyst Inside Cricket’ podcast.
Further elaborating on issues with cricketers immersing themselves to be successful, Nixon said, “And that total immersion is the fundamental problem. A life in cricket is so all-consuming as well as fulfilling. But being suddenly on the outside can leave you just feeling empty and useless. You lose your identity. Who am I, you ask? Perspective is everything.”
“And so if ever I am feeling down through lack of progress or general fatigue or ineptitude I heed the words of my 91-year-old mother, who, walking stoically and painfully to the doctors to have her legs rebandaged for the umpteenth time, used to say – “Well, at least I don’t live in Ukraine.”
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Nixon, who served as Head Coach of Leicestershire County Cricket Club from 2017 to 2023, explained how he helps players deal with stress and mental issues in his coaching roles.
“You have some one-to-one time. You make sure that other people are aware of it, what’s going on as well, so that we can be supportive as much as we can, from welfare officers in clubs to sometimes your backroom staff, as a head coach, people sometimes don’t want to show vulnerability to the head coach because they’re thinking, could the head coach release me?”
“Could they make my life even worse? So actually, using your support staff in a really positive manner, people always open up to a physio or a strength and conditioning coach in a gym, it’s in a different location to a head coach’s office, or we’d have a walk and talk, I love the walk and talk idea.”
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