Exploring Mental Health Experiences in Professional Cricket

While mental health in professional cricket has received lots of public attention, presently, there is a lack of empirical research and definitive data around mental health in the professional game (McCabe et al., 2021). Cricket is a game that places a premium on not making mistakes and the intolerance of failure, and a career in the professional game is one associated with extreme highs and lows, extensive time away from family and an enhanced individual focus on performance which is a unique combination that has the potential to impact players mental health across their career. The unique nature of a career in professional cricket makes mental health an important area of exploration for researchers and the wider cricket multidisciplinary teams (McCabe et al., 2021). Hence, research to date has highlighted the need to collect more rigorous evidence around mental health in professional cricket to be able to design, implement and evaluate cricket specific support and intervention programmes (McCabe et al., 2021; Vella et al., 2020). Therefore, our research project will add to the extant literature by investigating the experiences, barriers, and facilitators of mental health in professional cricket. The project will then enable the development of recommendations, policy guidelines and practical interventions for key cricket stakeholders (e.g., Counties, PCA, England and Wales Cricket Board, and International Cricket Council). Hence, the two main aims of our research project are to: (1) to explore the experiences, barriers, and facilitators of mental health in professional cricket, (2) deliver and evaluate an organisational mental health intervention in professional cricket.
To achieve these aims our project will comprise three studies. First, a cross-sectional study will define mental health in the specific, unique context of UK male and female professional cricket through discovering what it means to the key stakeholders within the game (e.g., CEO's, Directors of cricket, Heads of the PCA/ECB/Opening up, Players, Coaches, Physios, Doctors, Psychologists, Academy coaches and Players). The second study
will explore professional cricketer's experiences of mental health, the key barriers and facilitators that lead to those experiences and when these barriers and facilitators are prevalent across the course of a season. This second study will use a qualitative, longitudinal approach including repeated interviews with a group of players to track their mental health experiences and what leads to these experiences changing across the course of a typical cricket season. Building on from studies 1 and 2, the third study will examine and evaluate the effectiveness, efficacy, and practicalities of delivering an organisational intervention, to protect and enhance professional cricketer's mental health during their career and reduce the stigma around mental health and help-seeking in professional cricket.
Overall, our project will build a valuable evidence base around mental health in professional cricket, from which, recommendations, policy guidance, and interventions can be provided to key stakeholders and organisations.
References
McCabe, T., Peirce, N., Gorczynski, P., & Heron, N. (2021). Narrative review of mental illness in cricket with recommendations for mental health support. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 7(1), e000910. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2020-000910
Vella, S., Swann, C., & Tamminen, K. (2020). Reflections on the Field of Mental Health in Sport: Critical Issues and Ways of Moving Forward. Journal Of Applied Sport Psychology, 33(1), 123-129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2020.1854898