Who is Punjab Kings cricketer and former teammate of KL Rahul suffering from mental anxiety issues

New Delhi: As we all know that mental health is one issue that has been discussed a lot in the sports industry in the last few years. While there would be options to deal with it, many chose to deal with it silently and some have been brave enough to accept it openly. Australia’s right-arm fast bowler Jhye Richardson is one such player, he was part of the IPL in 2021 and 2024. He has now said during the 2021 IPL, when he played for Punjab Kings in which the team had KL Rahul, Chris Gayle and Mohammed Shami, at that time he suffered the most.

“A lot of it started during COVID. My trip to the IPL – I left home not in the headspace that I probably should have been,” Richardson told cricket.com.au.

“Then things sort of hit the fan while I was away, and everything with COVID and not being able to get home and stuff like that, it just toppled on top of each other. I think you don’t realise what sort of space you’re in until it becomes too much, which is why now I encourage a lot of young cricketers to work on their mental health – even if they think that they’re going okay,” said the Australian pacer.

“It’s like practising for the short ball. The more you practice the short ball, the better you’re going to be at it when that situation arises out in the middle. It’s very similar off the field,” he added.

It is worth mentioning that Jhye Richardson played three Tests, 15 ODIs and 18 T20Is, he is aiming for a return in Tests for the Aussies. Earlier, the situation was so grave that Richardson felt the need for “professional intervention.”

“Everything just got to a point where there was some professional intervention that needed to happen. I’m not willing to go into a whole lot of detail, but I just landed in a spot where things were bad enough that I stepped back and said, ‘I can’t continue thinking the way that I am’ and (needed) to get a bit more education and knowledge about how the brain works,” said Jhye Richardson.

He also added some words and lauded Western Australia for lending a helping hand. “A lot of the judgment has gone nowadays. Within our (WA) group we trust everyone with the way that they want to go about things. People are individuals – they train in different ways, they think differently.”

“The resources within cricket nowadays make the process of dealing with mental health issues a lot easier and there is a lot more education there.

“But as someone who has dealt with anxiety, not just on the field but away from cricket and day-to-day living, it can be quite exhausting,” he said.