On Tuesday, BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly stated that Indian cricketers are “more tolerant” when it comes to dealing with quarantine. Living in bio-bubble is not an easy task and some players are following the same for more than 6 months now since cricket has restarted. Many players international players have dropped out of the upcoming Indian Premier League due to the overload and stress caused by constant isolation.
Saurav Ganguly speaks about Indian’s mentality
Saurav Ganguly stated that the Indian players are mentally more strong while dealing with mental health in comparison to English, Australians and West Indian players. He added that he has seen international players giving up on mental health. Saurav Ganguly also acknowledged the fact that it has been a difficult phase for the players to constantly live their lives between stadiums and hotels. Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been very vocal about the toll the bio-bubble has been taking on player’s mental health.
“I feel we Indians are a bit more tolerant than overseas (cricketers). I have played with a lot of Englishmen, Australians, and the West Indians, they just give up on mental health,” the former India captain said at a virtual promotional event here.
“In the last six-seven months, with so much cricket being going on in the bio-bubble, it’s so tough. Just going from the hotel room to the ground, handle the pressure and come back to the room and then get back to the ground again, it’s an absolutely different life.”
“Look at the Australian team, they were supposed to go to South Africa for a Test series after India played there. They refused to go there…,” he said. “And always there’s this scare of COVID. ‘Hope it’s not me the next time. You have to stay positive, you have to train yourself mentally. All of us have to train ourselves mentally so that goodwill happen. It boils down to training,” Ganguly added.
“You just have to deal with it. It’s the mindset that you get into. Life has no guarantees, be it in sport, business or whatever. You go through ups and downs. You just have to bite the bullet. Pressure is a huge thing in everybody’s life. All of us go through different pressures. “When you play your first Test, it’s the pressure of making yourself established and making the world know that you belong at this level. A little bit of blip and it doesn’t stop people from scrutinising you and that adds to athletes in a long way,” he added.
