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Last update: March 18, 2024, 10:40 IST
Ravichandran Ashwin says he sought outside help which changed his life for the better. (BCCI Photo)
Ravichandran Ashwin remembers the time he sought counseling after deciding to stop playing cricket in 2017.
Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that he decided to quit cricket in 2017 and thought of doing an MBA to pursue a career in marketing. The Indian star says the pressure of playing professional cricket was such that it began to have a negative impact on his personal life and a fight with his father one day left him in tears, after which he stopped playing. watch cricket.
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In a revealing interview with The Indian ExpressAshwin, who recently became the second Indian to take 500 Test wickets, has shed light on how constant scrutiny and pressure to perform in a cut-throat world of professional cricket can affect a player’s mental health.
“There are layers to mental health,” Ashwin said. “Some people can succumb to the pressure. Some are traveling all the time and can get tired. Sometimes you’re in a very dark place in your life and you want to talk to someone, and I think most of the time, people find themselves in the victim position. Which, in my opinion, is a very dangerous situation.”
“Although I have my family supporting me and I can return to my family, I can’t say many things. I would say that cricket, in many ways, is a corporate affair with a bit of governmental organizational activities and attributes. Although if I come and talk to my dad about corporate issues, he only has one line to say: It’s all politics. And that is a very big line. And even the fans end up doing the same. From time to time, when I find myself in a dark spot, I’ve done that a little too. But it is very wrong because you feel that someone’s success comes very easily. It is not,” he added.
Ashwin later says that he wasn’t able to spend enough time with his young family and during a family argument, his father once bluntly told him why he was being “screwed.”
“My wife is a great listener, but she had a very young family and I didn’t dedicate enough time to her. One day we were talking. My dad said something. And some internal matter in the house had gone wrong. And I said something to my dad. My dad and I fight a lot. And he finally released a statement: “You know what? You are too upright and honest. That’s why they’re screwing you.” He made that statement and left. I’m not an emotional person. I’d like to think I’m pretty strong but I just locked myself away. And then I started to cry. I was crying for a long time. I didn’t expect my dad to say that. I don’t think he even realized what he did,” Ashwin said.
“I thought I was putting the people at home through a lot. She used to lock me in the room. I never watched cricket. My room used to be dark all the time,” she added.
Ashwin then decided to quit cricket, but then sought “outside help” to give him a different perspective which changed his “life for the better”.
“I decided to quit cricket. I wondered what he would do? And I said that whatever I did in life, I would try to achieve excellence and be the best I could in that profession. I would probably try to do an MBA and I would probably be in marketing. I gave myself so many options and then I thought that before making a decision, I should have crystal clarity. I’ll probably get a vision outside of my life. And see who I am, where I am. That’s when I sought outside help and my life changed for the better,” the 37-year-old said.
