The Second Spinner – A Story of Cricket and Mental Health

On the surface, I had a fortunate grade career. A couple of games in 1st grade, a handful in 2s, but generally speaking a middle to lower grader who was just happy to be out on the field, desperately trying to contribute. I wasn’t a great player, but I absolutely busted my gut. I attended every training session for seasons on end, and bowled for hours, put cricket before everything. I wanted to be a guy that others wanted to play with.

All the while though, when you live with anxiety – and many do, more than we realise – there is that little voice inside you that tells you that you aren’t good enough, you will get found out, your teammates don’t rate you, or even like you, and it is all going to fall away as quickly as it became important to you because that is what you deserve. You become pretty convincing, even though hindsight shows that the anxiety is only you talking to yourself.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/166/andre-maddocks/blog/993/the-second-spinner-ndash-a-story-of-cricket-and-mental-health