Playing is a standard time period utilized in English cricket for the time being, however maybe not within the widespread sense of the time period. Ben Stokes’ new technique of captaincy is definitely see him take loads of gambles as a way to get a outcome – win or lose – and it’s proving to create a breathtakingly thrilling model of the sport.

Nevertheless, within the extra widespread sense of the time period playing, cricket has had a extra ugly time of it down the years, from match fixing to gamers struggling with excessive playing money owed, Azeem Rafiq notably popping out about his drawback with playing and the dependancy counselling he acquired.

However Rafiq isn’t alone, and plenty of former gamers have struggled with playing each throughout and after their careers. However why is that?

After all, cricket gamers do have an terrible lot of downtime, usually in isolation, and with the rise of playing on smartphones it’s simpler than ever earlier than to position a guess, from the consolation of a resort room whereas sport is on the TV, and even within the dressing room, from the highest stage proper right down to the dressing room.

Psychological well being has additionally been mentioned overtly in current occasions round cricket, with these lengthy intervals of occasions away from household, seeing gamers flip to the likes of alcohol and playing, whereas additionally struggling with despair and nervousness.

There stems one of many greatest issues that’s driving gamers to such an dependancy.

The likes of Ben Stokes, Jonathan Trott and plenty of different high cricketers have spoken about their battles with psychological well being, and whereas that hasn’t gone into dependancy, nor has there been any suggestion of it, it’s straightforward to see how so many can fall into that lure.

Patrick Foster, the previous Durham UCCE participant has been most open about his battle with dependancy throughout his cricketing profession, claiming he misplaced £4million and held his dependancy a secret for over 12 years, in addition to falling into alcoholism.

He stated, in an interview with The I newspaper, “I suffered from nervousness, despair and stress so extreme it gave me a abdomen ulcer. I used to be so, so uninterested in mendacity, but I barely slept by way of the evening for seven years; I might be awake indulging my dependancy, or coping with its devastating penalties.”

On the peak of his dependancy, and through his profession, he would common round 77 bets per day. That’s whereas he’s additionally doing his job, even betting on the likes of Hungarian handball and American horse racing. It will definitely bought to breaking level, and he did search out rehab to get his life again on monitor and