Henriques' darkest moments in career, thought of committing suicide
Khan Mutasim Billah LifeEditor
Posted - 2020-04-24T16:28:02+06:00
Updated - 2020-04-24T16:28:02+06:00
There are many cases of cricketers staying away from the game due to mental exhaustion, frustration or acceptance of failure. Glenn Maxwell was the last to take a break from all forms of cricket to restore his mental health.
Jonathan Trott, Will Pucovski and Sarah Jane Taylor have also suffered from this problem. However, none of them made any harmful decision other than staying away from the game. But Australian pace bowling all-rounder
sat down to do something very bad. And it’s for only the decision in toss is wrong.
The incident took place in 2017. Henriques decided to bowl after winning the toss against Tasmania in a Sheffield Shield match. He thought the wicket would be bowling friendly. But it was seen that Tasmania scored 450 runs in the first innings. In reply, his team lost 5 wickets for 90 runs.
But if he had batted earlier, the picture would have been different - Henriques was very disappointed thinking that. He lost control on the way home at the end of the second day's play. The speed of the car increased so much that the accident was inevitable. He thought to himself that he would die now. However, the Aussie all-rounder restrained himself at the last moment.
Henriques, 33, said of the depressing period,
"If you look at the symptoms of depression on Google, I can feel it all. That too very clearly. In just one month, I lost 10 kg of weight. My weight went to 88 kg from 98 kg in just four weeks.”
Recalling that Sheffield Shield match, he kept saying,
“I decided to bowl after winning the toss at the Bankstown Oval against Tasmania. I thought I was going to get the green grass wicket. But at the end of the first day, their total score stood at 290 runs for 2 wickets. They declared for 450 runs on the second day. Our situation was only 90 runs for 5 wickets. I was out for 20 runs.”
“I remember my car was going 110km on the way home. Every hour. Sitting in the car I was thinking to myself, now what would happen if I bumped into a street pole? What will be the next situation? Then I thought, it would not be right to do. It will be unfair to my brothers, unfair to my partner, unfair to those who are for me.”
"I thought I could make my team 10 man for the remaining two days of the match,"
he added.
“I finally applied the brakes. I was crying a lot then, my whole body was shaking. I had to take care of everything. In just 5 minutes.”
Henriques has played four Tests, 11 ODIs and 11 T20s for the Australian national cricket team. He has scored 404 runs with 4 fifties in three formats with the bat. He has also got 13 wickets in bowling.