Hindsight makes the viewer a master | Virat Kohli criticism, mental health and more

Virat Kohli has been receiving blows left and right, some below the belt and some right to his temple. What is different about these blows is that they are not graced by a ball; these are words from people and pundits about what he should do in what he does best. 

Now this ‘chatter’ may just be used as white noise or fuel by the former skipper, but not every player is as thick-skinned, and there is a dire need to talk about the unfair and jarring criticism that players receive as soon as they hit a bad patch. 

What you see on the TV or read in the newspaper about a cricketer’s career is just the tip of the iceberg; below lies a mammoth chunk of their life and struggles that you may never see or experience. 

Amid pressure, failures, setbacks, injuries, rigorous training schedules, and bad days (or weeks, or months, or a bad year) is a human being. Cricketers are not made of armours of steel. For every India XI, there are thousands that crumbled under pressure. 

It is much easier to talk about what a batter could have done when you’re facing a TV screen while the batter faces a 140+ kph ball, while you’re sitting on the sofa, the batter is on the crease carrying the weight of his country. While you yell at the screen, their mind races with the score, the needed run rate, where the gaps are, what the bowler might bowl next, and on and on. 

Hindsight makes the viewer a master. 

If you haven’t played cricket first-hand, you don’t get to tell someone who has dedicated their life to the game how to play it. And if you have played cricket, you should know better. 

No sportsperson, let alone a cricketer wants to perform poorly. They live for the applause, the runs, the wickets; they live on the thrill of the chase. Losses define a player’s success more than their wins. 

If I could paint a picture, I would say the world of cricket is like a fish bowl; players are swimming in a tiny little bowl, on display, under constant scrutiny and criticism. Some drown, some swim, and some get stuck in an endless path of spinning circles. 

Merciless and pitiless scrutiny, like we are witnessing in the case of Virat Kohli, can act as a catalyst to a player’s ill-mental health. All while forgetting that we are the ones who put cricketers on a pedestal, we make them idols and call them gods, expecting them to perform consistently, always stay their best and always be the perfect-angel image of what a cricketer should be. There is no space allowed for them to be just what they are, humans. 

Virat Kohli, once celebrated as the King of Cricket, a larger-than-life human with a godly persona, the master who chased as no Indian did - has been bad-mouthed like how a bully treats a college geek. 

So why do we put a grenade in their hands, pull the pin, and then lose our mind when it blows? Not only does it blow up in their face, but there are also millions of people watching as it does. Some watch it in the stadium; some dress up and talk about it in studios; some are sitting behind their computers, faceless and spineless. All of this while we offer no protection to the players in the line of action. 

Cricket, as a sphere, still isn’t adequately equipped to take care of its players’ mental health. Even after ages of cricket being established as an elite sport, it is yet to provide players with the protection they deserve. Associations, boards and fans alike are quick to put a player on a pedestal without guaranteeing a safe journey downwards. 

We need to shift the narrative and how we view athletes; how is it that when these athletes make it, we stop asking them “How are you?” and then when they fall, we are quick to fire at them with judgement, fault-finding and unsolicited advice. 

Cricketers are more than their game. Cricketers are more than one bad dismissal or one magnificent inning. Cricketers are, first, human, and that is how they should be treated, especially at the grassroots level. The scrutiny comes at every tier, and we have to create an anti-fragile mindset, and we have to start young. 

Cricket comes with a burden, hidden and camouflaged under “it’s part and parcel of the game”, “if you’re out of form, you’re out of the team”, “you’re too emotional”, and “your innings wasn’t good enough. 

All that diamond-studded glory comes with a price.