Cricket Australia keeping a close eye on players and staff, reveals Justin Langer
According to Justin Langer, the Cricket Australia board has been keen on monitoring the mental health of its players and staff who are in self isolation during the pandemic. The national head coach also stated that the board has enough professional resources if they need to help all its cricketers.
The first ODI game of the three-match series between Australia and New Zealand was played, in Sydney, on March 13. The game was played closed doors with empty stands at the SCG. Following that, the series was called off and the players and staff had self-isolated themselves. In these long periods of living alone, cricketers have found help in Cricket Australia, who are monitoring the players’ mental health pretty closely. According to Australia’s national team coach Justin Langer, balancing the personal benefits of extended time at home in the time of global sport being kept on a pause is very important. CA has thus kept a close eye on the players in quarantine.Â
"The mental health thing, we talked about it in a conference call yesterday, particularly for any of our staff or players who are home alone basically. We have to keep an eye on those guys and girls to make sure they're ok. Hopefully being around their families and having a rest from the pressure of the games at the moment will have an impact. But we're very aware and we've got incredible resources available for all our players and staff at Cricket Australia. In leadership we talk about caring about people - it's a really, really important part of any leadership,” Langer was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
Since last year, the cases of mental health in Australia’s cricket fraternity have been quite intense. And, hence, CA now have resources, led by Kevin Roberts, to deal with the alarming situation. It has helped all players and staff stay connected in these days.
"And we're seeing that. It's been led by Kevin Roberts, we are doing that - to make sure we're caring and supporting all our staff. So with that, we have greater awareness of the mental health issues. We have awareness of people who will be more or less vulnerable to that. So we'll make sure we look after them and care for them. That's absolutely crucial,” Langer added.
"We've got incredible resources in Cricket Australia now. We've got full-time professional development managers in all the states, we've got full-time psychologists at most of the states. At CA we have incredible resources. I've had 15 teleconferences in the last week or so and found it really working well. We're all staying connected. One of the great things about modern technology is we're able to stay connected. There's so many other ways you can learn. There's books, online learning, the internet is incredible."