Former England cricketer Sarah Taylor revealed her mental health issues on Monday.
Taylor took a year off the field in 2016, only to retire three years later at the age of 30. The London-born is regarded as one of the best wicket-keepers the game has ever seen and made history by becoming the first woman to be appointed as the wicket keeping Coach of the Senior Men’s County- Sussex – last month.
Talking about her drift into the abyss in a podcast with Headstrong, Taylor shared that she had started feeling lonely post her establishment as a cricketer since she had stopped interacting much with her compatriots.
“I felt utterly lonely the last three years of my career. It probably began with all of that success a few years before because I then felt different again. I felt a little bit further away from my mates than I should have and I believe that was probably my own doing,” the two-time World Cup winner divulged.
Reminiscing the dark void, Taylor further added that she would skip training in the last three years of her career and avoid people only to be left alone in her room.
“In my last three years I was incredibly lonely. [I would] go to training, come back to my room, stay there all night, room service. Again, [I] avoided friendships, avoided people, avoided media, avoided expectation, tried to avoid cricket at times, avoided training,” Taylor admitted.
The 31-year-old also reasoned that she missed her family, and sometimes the workload can take the better of any individual.
“I say three years, it was probably four or five; I did take a break, didn’t I? I was incredibly lonely. Cricket can sometimes, unfortunately, lend itself to that. It’s quite apparent in the modern game given how long we are away. We don’t see our families. We’re obviously not away as long as the men are but we don’t see our families within that unless they make the decision to come on over,” Taylor concluded.
