Former Indian Kapil Dev made a controversial remark upon being asked about dealing with the high pressure of playing cricket at the highest level. Kapil was blunt in his remarks and dismissed the concerns about the mental side of things of sportspersons.
Kapil revealed that he keeps hearing that players have a lot of pressure to play the Indian Premier League (IPL) and made a straightforward statement that they should not play if they feel this way. He also claimed terms like ‘depression’ are American concepts and he does not agree with them.
“I hear a lot of times on TV that there’s a lot of pressure on players to play in the IPL. Then I only say one thing, don’t play,” said Kapil while addressing an audience at an event. “If a player has passion, there will be no pressure. I can’t understand these American words, like depression. I’m a farmer and we play because we enjoy the game, and there can’t be any pressure while enjoying the game,” he added.
Recently, Indian talisman batter Virat Kohli had opened up on being mentally down which forced him to take a break after the England tour. The ex-Indian skipper revealed that he was faking his intensity and the time away from the sport helped him realise it.
England Test captain Ben Stokes has been another player vocal about his issues with mental health. The star all-rounder stated in his recently released documentary that he had started to hate the sport following his father’s death.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma had also opened up on the issues and revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it hard for the players due to the quarantine and bio-bubble restrictions put in place in order to avoid the spread of the infection and allow sport to continue in the tough times.
