I could win the understatement of the year award when I say the past 18 months have been seriously tough, not only in Australia but around the world.
The mental pressure all have been put under, has obviously ranged from annoyance through to quite extreme, but what’s been most obvious is the massive numbers of people being mentally stressed and stressed for long periods of time.
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Sports people are no different, of course. They’ve had to endure similar conditions to many and it’s been interesting to see how they’ve coped.
Teams like the Melbourne Storm and the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL have spent most of the past two years away from either their home state or country, being based in a variety of locations in eastern Australia.
That they and other teams in the NRL have been able to produce two seasons of quality football speaks volumes for the organisation that has adapted to this changing environment and the players for showing terrific resilience. Given how the AFL panned out, the same could be said for those involved in that competition as well.
Where I’m having a problem is the goings-on with the cricket at present.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Over the past 18 months, I’ve lost count of the number of articles telling me just how tough it is to spend time in a bio-security bubble. If the stories are to be believed, this should be included as another stage in Dante’s vision of hell.
What’s interesting is these stories almost all seem to come from the men.
I’ve read several stories from women cricketers who acknowledge time spent in a bio-bubble is not the easiest, but then go on to talk about all the positives they gained while being quarantined. Which brings me to the title of this piece.
Nasser Hussain made some comments that resonated with me – for all the wrong reasons.
“I’m quite proud of the way in which England’s Test team have kept the show on the road in difficult circumstances, moving in and out of bubbles and spending time away from their families.
“It’s draining. Mental health has suffered… Unless you’ve spent time in a bubble… you don’t get to lecture other people on how they should behave.
“It’s a delicate balancing act for (England captain Joe) Root and Ashley Giles, the director of cricket. They need to be considerate about the players’ mental health as they prepare to enter yet another bubble on one of the toughest tours of all.”
I’d have had real sympathy for these words 12 months ago. I might have had similar feelings even six months ago, but nowadays, they simply don’t work.
There’s no doubt England have bent over backwards to accommodate their players, to the point where not one of them has played in every Test in the past 18 matches. Some have missed games through injuries while others, like Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler, played a game or two then missed the rest of a tour.
Hussain’s suggestion that spending two weeks in quarantine prior to the Ashes will somehow cause some sort of mental deterioration is nonsensical.
Players have been doing this for 18 months, so if they can’t cope with this now, perhaps they don’t have what it takes to play Test cricket.
(Julian Finney/Getty Images)
There’s no doubt being away from family is tough. I spent a fair part of my working life ‘out bush’, often for weeks on end, when the only contact to anyone was a patchy phone line.
I have dozens of friends who worked or are still working not only away from family, but outside Australia, yet they still manage to cope with the pressures, mostly because they have to.
I also know since all the restrictions started, I’ve learnt to cope and adapt, but it seems that many cricketers have not. Bio-secure bubbles are not something new, so they should have learnt coping skills to manage. If they haven’t, why haven’t we heard more about it?
Some of our male cricketers are also very selective in when they want to go into bubbles, such as for lucrative tournaments and when they choose to play the mental health card, at which point cricket boards appear willing to cave in to their demands.
This appears to be what’s happening at present, with the fate of the Ashes unclear. It’s also an issue for us, with some of those Australian players who chose not to go to the West Indies and Bangladesh earlier this year.
Players like Ben Stokes, who have genuine mental health issues, deserve respect and time to manage their issues. For the rest, it might be time to stick their heads outside the bubbles they’re living in and look at how the rest of the world is managing. Yes it’s tough but suck it up and get on with it.
If they can’t do that, perhaps they need to speak with their female Test counterparts. The women seemed to have managed tough times very well, certainly better than the boys.
Englishbob
Guest
You're saying people who don't want to undergo another 3 months away from their families, young kids especially, "don't have what it takes to play test cricket" is nonsensical. Test cricket takes place over 5 days inside the ropes, the issue here isn't the cricket - its the other 80% of the time they spend touring, bleak hotels on your own for weeks, most prisoners in western jails get an hour of socialising a day which they wont, its mental grind, then add the pressure of performing at a high level when you're not in a good head space (can't be done: Michael Jordan, Djokovic, Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton, Mike Tyson all suffered dips due to none sport off field issues). The article is well written but your point is lowest common denominator "I'm alright so everyone else should be". You don't know what these grown adults are dealing with in their own lives, don't second guess.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Just remember when all those pro athletes talk about all the sacrifices they make all the time, all the hard work they put in compared to everyone else, how they do all the one percenters so they can win, how desperate they are to win, just don't ask them to do that stuff if it makes them uncomfortable or actually sacrifice. All that talk is BS most of the time. Yes they work hard and do all the professional stuff but it feel more mercenary type attitude rather than do anything to win for your country. I don't begrudge them wanting their families around but treating not to come because they might have to go into quarantine is totally over the top. To be honest the amount of people I have seen in my own field who talk themselves up as working harder than anyone else and how they will do anything to succeed can't manage two weeks of quarantine and either don't do it and move whole projects just so they don't have to and whine the whole time. All those who are rich and privileged really aren't as hard working or as determined as they think they are and it feels like the English cricketers fit into this category. The Aussie cricketers are only mildly better.
Sinclair Whitbourne
Roar Rookie
Paul, I have some sympathy for your views and a lot of respect for your writing on this site in general, but I don't agree on this one. First, the wear and tear of these things is cumulative. Look at how poor compliance has become in Sydney and Melbourne over time as people crack. Lockdown doesn't really bother me personally, because I have been working from home since 2015, I am not especially sociable and I have a nice large yard and plenty of space in my home. My workload has increased, so no economic issues. But I get the hardship for more normal members of society. Humans are social animals. Cricketers are human. English cricketers have had a very different experience of COVID to Australia, in case people haven't kept up with the news. England have played a lot of cricket in quarantine etc. since COVID season kicked off. They are now in a country where lockdowns have ended, but over 130,000 people have died in the UK and I wouldn't underestimate the impact of that on people over there, including on cricketers. It is a whole extra level of anxiety, grief and pressure even compared to the hardship for Victorians /Melburnians. A lot of people in the UK are done, they are over it and the idea of doing variations of quarantine again in Australia, because our governments bungled vax and quarantine is understandably not very attractive for some of them. They don't owe it to us to entertain us. Second, a counter point to your article can be found at https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/cricket/players-stand-over-ashes-shows-shift-in-attitudes-since-marcus-trescothick-s-day/ar-AAPdb2h?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531 Whether you agree, or not, worth a read. I think it also makes some salient points about the inherent and particular pressures of cricket as a sport over many other sports. That is not to say other sports don't involve pressure, but the context in many cases is very different. Third, the career of professional sportspeople is uncertain, prone to be brief and a very tiny proportion ever make a wage proportionate to effort and sacrifice. If players choose IPL, for example over a less highly remunerated tours, I would say that is pretty understandable. That is about saying I can manage 'x' number of periods in quarantine/bubbles, so I will choose the ones that will provide the best living for me and/or my family. Lots of people make calls on work/life/health balance. Your article has more balance than some of the more idiotic comments responding to it. I am always impressed by how many people (and this isn't you) who make comments about 'sucking it up', or 'growing a pair' etc. are people who squeal like stuck pigs when they have to 'suck it up', or make a sacrifice, 'take one for the team' or do 'hard yards' themselves. I recall a guest book in a London hotel just after the Olympics there had a comment by someone who was a professor of economics at a very pro-free market US university complaining about how the price of accommodation had gone through the roof without any increase in service when London held the event. That's his free market in operation, but he didn't like it when it bit him. I find a lot of comments about sports people and mental health/workloads of the same kind. I hope the tour goes ahead and I hope we get a competitive series and get to see as many of the big names as possible. I always feel appreciative that sportspeople have made the effort to provide me with entertainment, but I never feel like they owe it to me. If I did, maybe it would be me that needs to suck it up, grow a pair and get some resilience and find my own entertainment.
Nik
Roar Rookie
Good one Paul! :laughing:
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Threaten to cancel AUKUS? That's the spirit!
Ian
Roar Rookie
NO ONE LIKES YOU STOP I’M THE NEW ALAN JONES ON THE RADIO STOP I’M DOING AUSTRALIA’S SECOND MOST IMPORTANT JOB STOP WHEN SOMEONE HITS THAT BALL THINGY I JUST WISH I COULD STOP IT STOP I HAVE TO GO AS MY HOMING PIGEONS HAVE JUST COME HOME STOP
Ian
Roar Rookie
That was the main reason Sky over here sacked him from the commentary box. He turned into a latter day Fred Trueman with his constant ' we didn't do this, and it's not as good as in my day' nonsense. He was held in contempt by most of the modern day players who thought his comments were generally pathetic. Once again,being a great cricketer/footballer/rugby player doesn't mean they'll make an even competent commentator or coach.
Ian
Roar Rookie
Eoin Morgan should have either retired or been asked to retire after the World Cup. He seems to have morphed into a modern Mike Brearley, a specialist captain whose batting form isn't good enough but apparently whose captaincy is essential to the team. Alex Hales has made some poor decisions in his personally life and has let himself badly with some of his behaviour but for Morgan to take the high moral ground and basically ban him playing is a disgrace. Remember this is the same Eoin Morgan that refused to tour Bangladesh due to security concerns and then on the day his team arrived was seen at a race meeting in the UK in a private box having a fine old time.
Ian
Roar Rookie
Don't ever doubt Paul's influence on world cricket matters! Honestly though, there has been far too much written and said about this whole fiasco. Just about everything should have been sorted out behind closed doors instead of the ridiculous will they, won't they, should they or who gives a stuff they. If ever it was in doubt, the last 12 months has shown how absolutely totally useless both the ECB and CA are.
Also, I am not a fan of womens cricket, but it appears the England womens cricket team have more balls than the men when it comes touring, and I savo bravo you good women you.
Poms are weak wussies
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
The autobiography called ‘Don’t tell Kath’?
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
I think it’s because they would be heading straight from the T20 World Cup to the Ashes. Regarding mental health, Australia was in a bad way before COVID came about and the amount that somebody earns or what career they’re in has no bearing on their mental health, that’s not how it works. I think that there’s a discussion to be had around ‘mental health’ and what it means in today’s world and it’s certainly a hot topic in sport right now and one can certainly argue that it’s trotted out a little too often as a protection mechanism from criticism but at the same time it’s not helpful to dismiss it out of hand (not suggesting that you are) and throw out the old cliches, like ‘soft’, ‘weak’, ‘suck it up’ and so on. As with most things these days it seems like it’s impossible to have a nuanced discussion as everything is so binary.
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
To my knowledge England didn’t even offer security as an excuse that was NZ. I think the changing situation in Afghanistan may well have a knock on effect in Pakistan in regards to security but we as regular Joe’s can only really speculate on it. Western security services will have a clearer idea one would assume.
Paul
Roar Guru
PS - IS JOS BUTTLER AVAILABLE FOR BABY SITTING STOP RISHABH PANT HAS OTHER PLANS STOP
The PTA has disbanded
Guest
DEAR MCC STOP BAFFLED BY CONTINUED DISCUSSIONS ABOUT TOUR CANCELLATION STOP HARDEN UP AND GET OVER HERE STOP SEE YOU IN BRISSY STOP BRING A PACKET OF JAFFA CAKES STOP TIM PAINE
The PTA has disbanded
Guest
The point is that plenty of cricketers at an individual level have no qualms going to Pakistan and know it is safe. So when a national board is claiming "safety reasons" for pulling out of a tour to Pakistan, it's clearly a stone cold lie.
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
I’d like to see Mahmood and Vince on the Ashes tour…if it goes ahead. Hales should be at the T20 World Cup too but Morgan doesn’t trust him apparently, nothing to do with the fact that he should be playing instead of Morgan.
I don't like cricket... I love it
Guest
This family and kids thing I think is a bit of a red herring. You never hear the WAGs insist on coming along to an India tour, a Bangladesh one or a Dubai stint. Let's be honest, the Australian tour is the one that the WAGs want to get on because it is the junket to beat all junkets. They actually spend little time with the cricketers. While the players are playing a tour match or training, they've usually skipped on up to Cairns, Port Douglas, Broome etc for some sightseeing and a girls' bender. The last Ashes in the days leading up to the Sydney test the WAGs practically made themselves at home on Bondi beach. The players are fighting for the WAGs to have a big bash summer holiday, not to be there for any familial support. Like I said above...you never see them go into bat this hard for the WAGs on an India tour
The PTA has disbanded
Guest
Alex Hales and James Vince are definitely two of the higher profile English players thete. Chris Jordan, saqib Mahmood, Joe Denly and that keeper...Banton? A few notables there.