Out of form,out of energy?

Sport is a domain whose boundaries transcend far beyond the field/ground.Just going out there and giving your hundred percent physically and mentally has a multitude of added dimensions to it.Any sports player who has made it to the national team of his/her country is indeed living the dream of millions and 'justification of his/her position'is constantly expected.It is indeed widely understood that an athlete in the national team not performing up to people's expectations would be doing 'injustice' to several other aspiring athletes who are toiling around day and night just to be able to rise to the position of a 'national' level athlete.First of all an athlete's performance is dependent on a set of a series of broad physical and mental factors.

This blog post isn't going to focus on all the factors,I am going to throw light on one major issue that negatively impacts the performance of several athletes which is 'mental fatigue'.Even though this is a universal factor that applies to the performance of athletes in all sports,  I am going to be focusing only on cricket in this post because my knowledge about other sports is limited.
 Okay,when we see several players rising to a peak in their career and their level of performance declines rapidly,they end up being benched in several tournaments with the selectors claiming that they are 'out of form' and they end up not being selected in their respective national team for years.What do people assume?That the player has become complacent towards his game due to a rise in his performance and the stories created by the media about the players' lives further strengthens this belief as we saw during the 2015 world cup tournament during the semifinal between India and Australia,the media blamed Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma for the poor performance of key player Virat Kohli and for team India's loss.Whereas,in reality even though Anushka Sharma is Virat Kohli's alleged girlfriend she was merely a spectator and she had no role to play in the performance of the players-this is not a judgement,most players' girlfriends and wives do come to watch matches but no one ever blames them if the player performs poorly.Common sense is indeed needed to understand that it is in human nature to succeed and fail,as humans do not have the endless capacity to give their best all the time even though they do try their best.And even though athletes have way more stamina than an average human being,we need to remember that they are 'humans' as well and not robots.

 Athletes are continuously travelling from one corner of the world to the other to play tournaments and they need to make several adjustments to the conditions of a country both physically and mentally and they need to satisfy expectations as well and do their best and when cricketers are doing their best ,they are never given their rest.The monotony in their lives causes a mental overload which causes mental fatigue,due to which they are physically tired since the mind is what controls the body because of which they are unable to give their best all the time.They are constantly stressed out and worried about losing their place in the national team if they don't perform up to expectations,and the expectations in my opinion are extremely unrealistic and humanly impossible to  meet.The only breaks athletes get are when they are not selected for certain major tournaments with the selectors' claims that it is due to 'poor performance'.Many sports players resort to usage of drugs like amphetamines which increases performance and blood doping which increases the amount of oxygen in the person's body so that he/she has increased levels of energy.
  If sports' players resort to drug usage and doping even though it is beneficial in the short run,in the long run it is extremely dangerous on several fronts such as-:
The drug business becomes more lucrative,which in turn encourages drug usage among aspiring athletes and others as well.Drugs may provide them a solution to their problems and will act as an outlet to their stress in the short run,while in the long run it is extremely hazardous to health and the drug lords will further expand their conquest of the world market.
 In my opinion the solution to beat the issue of mental fatigue among athletes would be to rest them for matches at regular intervals,this way several other athletes would get a chance to play as well and the overworked athletes would get their much needed break without getting kicked out of the tournament.It is as simple as it sounds,the selectors would be able to do it if they could understand things from the point of view of the athlete.

Sport is realizing that a 'game is a game'

   Cricketers constantly bear criticism for their poor performance or for being out of form.Indians  have this mentality where they cite emotions and superstitions as causes for the occurrence of events.Well for certain events like a death of a family member or when a person faces a series of unfortunate events, which were just occurrences for which no one could be blamed responsible attaching superstitions to resonate their occurrences does make some sense.But when it comes to sports,especially when we cite it in the context of games we must remember that 'a game is a game' and every game will have a 'winner' and a 'loser' and being on the winning or the losing side of a game is like a 'head or tail' of a coin.Nobody is a permanent 'winner' or a permanent 'loser' of a game.
     In Western countries like New Zealand,Australia,England,Ireland etc  they cite 'rationalist causes' as occurrences for any event.Rationalists are widely criticized in Eastern countries where more importance is attached to feelings,and facing the 'bitter truth' according to them does not give a person any hope or a positive feeling.From a neutral perspective however,the 'rationalist' approach should be applied in areas where work and profession is concerned and where social relationships assume a lesser importance while the 'emotional' approach should be adopted in areas where social networks and relationships assume the highest importance.
  Coming back to what I was talking about,for a sports' spectator the sport is not his profession.He is merely a person who enjoys the game and he has his own views about it. However,his views should not go to depths where the entire society is affected.Already,athletes are people who are under severe external pressure from a multitude of directions ranging from their family members to their team mates to their country men and internal pressure which stems from 'the self'.For example:when India lost to Australia in the world cup semifinal this year,the loss was over analysed and was looked at in a very negative way and labels such as 'lazy','laid back','casual' etc were attached to the players.While when New Zealand were on a winning streak throughout the world cup and they lost to Australia in the most crucial match of the tournament,which was the world cup final instead of criticizing the players and overly analyzing the loss,they were given a grand welcome from the airport to the five star hotel where they were honored and they were well appreciated for the effort they put it on the field to add to the country's pride and the role they played to encourage sports activities in the country.
The Indian fans will be able to understand the pressure the sportsmen are under only if they step into the sportsman's shoes,which is indeed a life skill of empathy.This is not just limited to the sports arena,but is a universal principle which applies to all the spheres of life