English veteran Andrew Flintoff will host a show concerning mental illness in Sports – Cricket News Update
It was reported on Friday, July 29, 2011 that English veteran; Andrew Flintoff will host a new show on the Sun TV. The show will take about the negative aspect associated with sports besides the fame and wealth.
Cricketer Flintoff will be interviewing the sports celebrities, both former and present, to let the public know about their first hand experiences. This show aims to explore the dark side of the sports and tell public and the world, how the players deal
with the mental pressures.
Mental illness is the last and the least discussed issue in sports and where no one really knows how petty issues like depression, tension and anxiety can hamper the player’s performance.
The BCC gave the reason for choosing Andrew Flintoff for this sensitive show and said, “Flintoff has first-hand experience of watching sporting colleagues battle privately with the illness throughout their careers”.
Marcus Trescothick, a famous English player was caught by depression which got so serious that Trescothick had to miss 2 cricket tours. He later on mentioned this phase of his life in his book “Coming Back to Me”. Depression cost him his international career
and Trescothick announced his retirement.
Michael Yardy also experienced the same problem as Trescothick and was dropped out of World Cup fixtures because of being mentally occupied by depression.
Mental illness is not only hampering the cricketer’s performance, boxer Frank Bruno, Rugby star John Kirwan and many others have been the victim of mental illness.
Charlotte Moore, the editor of BBC expressed her views and said, “Depression is a subject we avoid talking about, particularly in sport, where it is increasingly prevalent”.
This show will be aired in this winter, where sportsmen will reveal what they go through and how they manage this personal problem.
It is not the first time that a cricketer will be hosting a show; many other sports celebrities have tried themselves on media also. Former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly has also been host of 2 shows in India which remained very popular and Ganguly’s fans
also welcomed this side of their idol.