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Dark and depressing! The other side of cricket is shocking

Updated on: 24 July,2016 05:04 PM IST  | 
Prof Ajit Shah |

The last suicide amongst Test cricketers was David Bairstow way back in 1998, but reports of players, including England spinner Monty Panesar, of enduring depression and paranoia are worrying

Dark and depressing! The other side of cricket is shocking

Monty Panesar

United Kingdom: Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in depressive illness and suicide amongst elite cricketers. Michael Henderson, reviewing former England opener Graham Thorpe's recently published autobiography, Rising from the Ashes, argued that depression was not only more frequent amongst elite cricketers but it was more severe in an article in The Cricketer magazine.


Earlier this year, India cricketer Suresh Raina openly spoke about feeling suicidal because of bullying whilst playing junior cricket. A few weeks ago, the former England left-arm spinner Monty Panesar spoke about his depressive illness and paranoia, which may have led to a premature end to his England career and sacking by three first-class counties. Earlier this week, Sarah Taylor, English women's wicketkeeper, took an indefinite break from cricket because of anxiety and panic attacks. Also, this week, the coroner returned a verdict of suicide for Tom Allin, a promising Warwickshire fast bowler, who killed himself earlier this year by jumping off a bridge. Last October, Durga Bhavani, a women's Ranji Trophy player for Andhra Pradesh, allegedly killed herself at the age of 25 years. David Frith, the famous cricket journalist and historian, described over a 100 suicide amongst elite cricketers in his two books.


Monty Panesar. Pic/Getty Images
Monty Panesar. Pic/Getty Images


Does depressive illness occur during cricket playing days or after retirement? Many elite cricketers have openly spoken about depressive illness and stress-related illness during their playing career, and include Graham Fowler, Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff, Jonathan Trott, John Mooney, Monty Panesar and Ian O'Brien. Moreover, there have been reports of several elite cricketers attempting suicide, but surviving, including Maninder Singh, Mark Vermeulen, Darren Cousins and Andre Nel. Although most people who commit suicide suffer from a depressive illness, not everyone with depressive illness will commit suicide.

Our research group, based in London and Sydney, used analytic research techniques to objectively examine the rate of suicide and risk factors associated with suicide amongst test cricketers, and this work was recently published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Australasian Psychiatry (reference given below). There were 20 suicides among Test cricketers from England (6 or 7), Australia (5 or 4), New Zealand (2) and South Africa (7) over the 137-year period between 1877 and 2014. There are two figures given for England and Australia because Albert Trott played for both countries. English Test cricketers who committed suicide were William Scotton, Arthur Shrewsbury, Albert Trott, Andrew Stoddard, Albert Ref, Harold Gimblett and David Bairstow. Among Australian Test cricketers were Albert Trott, William Bruce, Jack Iverson, Sid Barnes and Jim Burke.

England’s David Bairstow
England’s David Bairstow

Aubrey Faulkner, Glenn Hall, Joe Partridge, George Shepstone, Vincent Tancred, Eddie van der Merwe and Billy Zulch comprised the South African lot while Fenwick Cresswell and Noel Harford were New Zealanders

There were no suicides among Test cricketers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the West Indies. This may, in part, be explained by the comparatively shorter duration of Test cricket played in these countries. However, there is clear evidence in the Wisden obituaries of suicides among other first-class cricketers from India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Tom Allin
Tom Allin

Suicide rates are usually reported per 100, 000 population per annum. The suicide rate for all Test cricketers combined was 1053 per 100,000. Rates for all four countries with Test cricketer suicide were higher than the highest ever reported male suicide rate in the general population in those countries.

The main risk factors for suicide amongst Test cricketers were depressive illness, alcohol misuse, poor physical health, financial difficulties and relationship (mainly martial) difficulties. These factors are identical to those observed for men in the general population. Only three suicides involved active players and the remaining 17 suicides occurred over a decade and up to 35 years after retirement from cricket, and when they were in middle or old age. Given that the risk factors for suicide amongst Test cricketers were similar to those in the general population and that suicides generally occurred many years after retirement from cricket suggests that suicides amongst Test cricketers were not specifically related to the game of cricket, despite perceived higher rates and emerging reports of depressive illness amongst contemporary cricketers.

It is also important to note that the last suicide amongst Test cricketers was in 1998 (David Bairstow). Factors that may have contributed to the absence of suicide amongst Test cricketers in recent years include the recent availability of psychological support systems for both active cricketers and those transitioning to retirement in England and New Zealand, better financial remuneration, and possibly the dramatic economic growth of cricket likely to attract highly driven personalities who have been well prepared psychologically and physically.

However, such support systems do not exist in several Test-playing countries and may be less available to cricketers playing at first-class or sub-first-class level. The evidence that elite cricketers are prone to depression and stress-related illnesses, and the absence of support structure for players in several test playing countries suggests that this risk of suicide has not been reduced. The evidence for this emerges from continuing suicide amongst first-class cricketers, emerging sub-first class cricketers and even female cricketers in several countries. Unless such support systems are universally in place, the potential risk of suicide amongst elite cricketers is unlikely to dissipate, and we may simply be waiting for the next such tragedy.

Professor Ajit Shah is Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Lancashire. He is a passionate fan of cricket. He has spent the last 20 years researching suicide.

Reference:  Are Elite cricketers more prone to suicide? A psychological autopsy study of Test cricketer suicide. Australasian Psychiatry by Shah AK, Savla-Shah S, Wijeratne C, Draper B (2016). 

Published online on apy.sagepub.com

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