Recently, Australian all-rounder former cricketer Glenn Maxwell has taken a break due to certain mental health issues and has decided to not play in international cricket T20l series against Sri Lanka. He announced this on Thursday, 31 October, through the players association committee. He got a lot of appreciation from many quarters of the Australian cricket board, for his decision.
Here, the Indian former cricketer Yuvraj Singh, in a recent press meet with PTI, has expressed his concern, saying Indian cricket team should also have players associations committee to protect the interests of cricketers just like in other countries.
Yuvraj was quoted as saying by PTI “We see outside India if the players are fatigued and tired mentally, like is the case with Maxwell, he has taken a break because he is feeling it. Our players can’t do that because they fear they may lose their place,” and he also added “What I would like to see is a players’ association coming up because I think the player’s voice was never heard before. So I think a players’ association that all other countries have, we should also have.”
Yuvraj added, “We deserve it [players’ association] because there are a lot of times we have been asked to play cricket that we don’t want to. We have to play with the pressure that if we don’t play we will be thrown out. That pressure has to go off the players that even if they are tired or fatigued or carrying injuries, they have to play. That support should be given to the players. The current players need more [support]. Somebody has to stand up and give them the players association. I don’t know who’s going to do that, but definitely that’s something I would like to see happening for the players. Every voice should be heard in the players’ association, not only the captain or vice-captain or senior players’. Every player should be asked about their opinions.”
Yuvraj also believes that Indian cricketers will have the freedom of voicing their opinions under the new BCCI president Sourav Ganguly because he is a former cricketer himself.
“Cricket from the administration point of view and cricketer’s point of view are two different things. Someone who has been a very successful captain will run cricket from a player’s point of view where cricketers’ concerns can be heard. It didn’t happen earlier. They [previous administrators] would make decisions and cricketers were not heard. Now he will listen to what cricketers want,” Yuvraj concluded by saying.
