CHENNAI: Shortly after their heartbreaking defeat in the 2017 World Cup final against England, Indian ODI skipper Mithali Raj and senior players Veda Krishnamurthy and Rajeshwari Gayakwad had spoken about the importance of having a sports psychologist with the team.
“We were out for a month, playing a long tour and so if you have someone to talk to about things other than cricket then it will benefit us. We have had sessions but not anyone travelling along with us. If we do have it will be a great thing,” Krishnamurthy had told The Indian Express.
Gayakwad, too acknowledged, and told the same daily, ”It will be good if someone of that role stays with us because we play such high-pressure games and sometimes we succumb to pressure. During those moments we are sometimes clueless as to how to get out of it so someone in the role of a sports psychologist or a mental conditioning coach will be good for the side.”
In 2019, Harmanpreet Kaur also had stressed the significance of it and told The New Indian Express that the team had requested a team psychologist. Another agonising final defeat followed in the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia as the team succumbed under pressure against a dominant home side.
Cut to 2022, the BCCI and the team management has decided to leave no stones unturned ahead of the upcoming ODI World Cup as they are having a travelling sports psychologist in Mugdha Bavare with the team in New Zealand for the long tour.
Speaking before the first T20I and only T20I against New Zealand, Mithali said that with the Covid-19 pandemic, bio-bubble and quarantines have become the new normal and as athletes, everyone has their own individual way of absorbing pressure to come out and play their best cricket. “Having a sports psychologist travelling with the team this time around helps too,” Mithali said on Tuesday.
Bavare, a swimmer herself before turning to sports and counselling psychology, has worked with various men’s and women’s cricketers and the Mumbai men’s Ranji team for several years now. The 39-year-old batter said that one-on-one sessions with the psychologist have helped the players understand how to deal with pressure, to find ways that they can absorb and play their best cricket.
“In today’s time, it is even more important and helpful to have them around travelling with the team with the longer duration of quarantines and bio–bubble unlike before you know where we get into the World Cup directly, now we have a series obviously the tour is extended for two months,” she added.
The last year has been a mixed bag for India as they have had a lot of positives with very fewer results to show, having lost the series to South Africa, England and Australia. And it could be hard to keep the morale up with results aren’t going their way.
Mithali said that the sessions with the psychologist help everyone look at things from a different perspective that helps them to deal with the pressure situations better. “It does help to have a one on one session with them because you see things in a very different perspective and that helps you understand yourself and find your own ways because everybody has a different way of dealing with these pressures and quarantine times. To have somebody to address these issues is always helpful,” she said.
India will play one T20I, five ODIs against New Zealand before the ODI World Cup where they will play a minimum of seven matches till the fag end of March.