Life and times

The former England batsman on the importance of mental health in sport

Former England cricketer Graeme Fowler

AUSTRALIANS CONFUSE aggression with being competitive. When I played out there, the more aggressive you were, the more professional you were deemed to be. There’s no such thing as a friendly in Australia. You could play a charity match and it would still have an edge. The Ashes this year will be the first since ‘sandpapergate’, when the captain Steve Smith and his sidekick David Warner went a bit DIY with the ball to get one over on South Africa. The Aussies will get some stick for it from the English crowds and rightly so. Warner and Smith deserve not to play for Australia for the rest of their careers.

WHEN I FIRST STARTED playing for England it was like when I used to be in the Accrington first team, only with better players. At the home World Cup in 1983, every cricket nation had a tour uniform. We, the host nation, were told to buy a suit. Not matching suits. Just a suit. There’s a picture by Patrick Eagar taken from the balcony at Lord’s looking down on to the pitch. All the teams are in lines, all in uniform, apart from us. We look a shambles. Thankfully, the England set-up has moved on. Thirty-six years later and this summer we have the best chance ever of winning the trophy.

I’M MUCH HAPPIER in the countryside than in the city. In the summer months, I sleep outside; the sounds of nature take me elsewhere. I’m lying in my garden in a village in County Durham but in my head I’ll be transported to the incredible beauty of the places I have been fortunate enough to visit. If I am really lucky, I’ll close my eyes and see the banks of the Brahmaputra River, in north-east India, the most beautiful place I have ever been. The river had mudflats and there were all these kids playing with hoops, bowling them along with sticks. The happiness on their faces was mirrored by my own.

STAYING IN HOTELS on tour could be dull so, as a dare, and probably after a few drinks, I used to try and climb up the outside walls. The first time I did it was at the Pegasus in Jamaica, the same hotel that Bob Woolmer was staying in when he died [the Pakistan coach, whose death still remains a mystery]. Luckily, for the Premier Inns of the north-east, I’ve given up climbing now. I have osteonecrosis in my hips, a condition that occurs when there is loss of blood to the bone causing it to die. It doesn’t help that it has the word ‘necro’ in it. ‘Your hips have died.’ ‘Oh, thanks!’ I’m still going, though. I have just become a batting mentor at Durham CCC. Many a good tune played on an old fiddle and all that.

SPORT AND LIFE are the same – they are both played in the mind. I suffer from depression and anxiety. I never wanted to take the lid off my head and see what was inside – I don’t think many other people did either – but recently I was counselled by ex-england captain and eminent psychoanalyst Mike Brearley. Those sessions changed my life. He gave me knowledge, strength and strategy. It can be a revelation to find we had the answers all the time, we just lost sight of where to find them. I know now that whatever issues come my way, I will have a way to deal with them. I mentally park the issue and walk away, rather than trying to solve it. We need to ensure that those much younger than me feel the same. Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. Mind Over Batter: Mental Strategies for Sport and Life by Graeme Fowler (Simon & Schuster, £20) is out now

Sport and life are the same – they are both played in the mind