Virat Kohli says increased focus on mental health of athletes will 'definitely become a norm' in future

With discussion around the importance of mental health in competitive sport finding its way back into the mainstream following Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka’s media boycott and subsequent withdrawal from the French Open, many leading athletes around the world are starting to open up on the topic in the past few days.

Virat Kohli, captain of the Indian men’s cricket team, is among those who agrees that the focus on understanding the importance of an athlete’s mental health will “become a norm” in the days to come in the rapidly changing landscape of professional sport.

“With the current structure and the kind of structure we’re competing inside, to be very honest, for a long period of time it’s very difficult for players to stay motivated and find the right kind of mental space just confined in one area and just doing the stuff day in and day out and dealing with high-pressure situations.

“This will definitely become a norm for the future where apart from the workloads I think the mental health side of things will also come into the picture big time, because you don’t have an outlet at all, in today’s day and age,” Kohli told reporters on the eve of the Indian team’s departure for the United Kingdom, where they face New Zealand in the ICC World Test Championship final followed by a five-Test series against hosts England, making for an extended stay for the Indians inside the bio-bubble with the tour set to end in September.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, had stated before this year’s French Open, which began on 30 May, that she intended to skip press interactions for the sake of her mental health, likening some of the questions posed by journalists to “kicking a person while they’re down”. While initially drawing mixed reactions from athletes, her stance wasn’t appreciated by French tennis chief Gilles Moretton, who called it a “phenomenal error”.

Although she did a cursory television interview following her first-round win over Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig, she stayed true to her word and skipped the press conference, which led to a $15,000 fine from the organisers and the threat of a default from the tournament.

Osaka eventually decided to withdraw from the tournament, revealing she had been battling bouts of depression since the 2018 US Open, and that she wanted to “take some time away from the court”.

India head coach Ravi Shastri, who was present at the virtual seminar with the skipper, also chipped in on the aspect.

“When you have to play five Test matches in this environment, in six weeks, it’s no joke. Even the fittest will need a break. More than the physical part, it’s the mental part. You can be destroyed mentally being asked to do the same things day in and day out and then go and perform, and it’s not easy to recover especially if you’ve had a bad day. So it’s important to shuffle the guys around and keep them mentally fresh,” said Shastri, a former India captain and all-rounder.

Mental health has also been increasingly discussed in the cricket fraternity. England’s Sarah Taylor, one of the greatest wicketkeepers the sport has ever seen, decided to retire at the age of 30 in September 2019 due to her battles with anxiety.

The same year saw Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell take a break from duty in October during the national’s team’s T20I series against Sri Lanka and stay away from the game for two months, revealing he had been battling demons for a long time before arriving at the decision.