Cricketers pushed to the brink

This was in the ’80s, when the Kiwi legend was at his peak. He suffered from depression, and the man who was so used to terrorising batsmen, found himself dealing with heart palpitations, dizzy spells and severe headaches. “(There was) total negativity to everything and little things became major...a dead fly on the floor and you have to start picking it up and put it in the rubbish bin,” Hadlee said. “I had no desire or strength to train or run a lap of the park. I was mentally and physically exhausted." It was at this point that Hadlee contemplated suicide. “It was a fleeting thought ... (but) it was something that crossed (my) mind."

Hadlee’s battles against the Black Dog, as Winston Churchill referred to the illness, is evidence that mental health issues have plagued cricketers for a while, though it’s only now, slowly, that the stigma attached to such revelations are starting to dissipate.