During an Instagram Live with India’s star opener Rohit Sharma, pacer Mohammed Shami shared a part of his emotional journey. Shami revealed how he had suicidal thoughts due to stress and personal problems.
Shami on his mental health
There came a time in Shami’s life when he had considered killing himself thrice and would have lost the sportsperson in him without his family’s support. Shami recently spoke about a chapter of his life when he had to deal with mental health. In a chat session with Rohit Sharma on Instagram, Shami revealed, “I think if my family had not supported me back then I would have lost my cricket. I thought of committing suicide three times during that period due to severe stress and personal problems.” Shami revealed that cricket was not a part of his thoughts while he was stressed. “I was not thinking about cricket at all. We were living on the 24th floor. They (family) were scared I might jump from the balcony.”
He added that his parents asked him to focus on his game without thinking of anything else further. A group of friends also used to stay with him and keep an eye. “My 2-3 friends used to stay with me for 24 hours. My parents asked me to focus on cricket to recover from that phase and not think about anything else. I started training then and sweated it out a lot at an academy in Dehradun.”
Rehab experience
Mohammed Shami who has been one of the prime weapons of Virat Kohli had to go for rehab after his injury in the 2015 World Cup. He needed 18 months to get back on the field after the injury. But the rehab was stressful and monotonous as well.
Shami explained, “Rehab was stressful as the same exercises are repeated every day. Then family problems started and I also suffered an accident. The accident happened 10-12 days ahead of the IPL and my personal problems were running high in the media,” Shami said.
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