England batting legend Geoffrey Boycott has angered mental health charities after he claimed that depressed cricketer Michael Yardy quit the World Cup because he wasn't good enough.
England batting legend Geoffrey Boycott has angered mental health charities after he claimed that depressed cricketer Michael Yardy quit the World Cup because he wasn't good enough.
England all-rounder Yardy, who flew home unexpectedly from Sri Lanka on Thursday, citing depression, had been criticised for his recent performances.
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Yardy, a spin-bowling all-rounder with Sussex, received praise and sympathy from the England players and management, and also from the mental health charity, Sane.
"I'm surprised, very surprised. But he must have been reading my comments about his bowling - it must have upset him. Obviously it was too much for him at this level. If any blame is attached it's partly to the selectors because I'm sorry, he's not good enough at this level," Boycott told the BBC.
Boycott expressed sympathy for Yardy, who has returned home to his wife and two young children in Brighton after spending all but four days of the last four months playing in New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh and India.
Marjorie Wallace, Sane's chief executive, said that the damage had already been done to a vulnerable sportsman. "We are concerned about any suggestion that depression is not a potentially serious and disabling condition," she said.
"It is wrong and old-fashioned to regard it as a form of weakness, or a disguise for a lack of achievement. It takes courage to speak out as Michael Yardy has done: not only can it help the person struggling with depression but encourage others to seek help," The Guardian quoted Wallace, as saying.
Yardy is the fourth member of the 15-man England World Cup squad to have flown home early, following Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad and his replacement, Ajmal Shahzad, who were all injured.
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