Cricketers' Foundation begins initiative to help players cope with pressure

Mumbai City-based Cricketers' Foundation has launched an initiative to help teenaged Mumbai boys and girls cope with the pressures and anxiety of playing a competitive sport like cricket. The initiative was launched in April in partnership with Mindsports and it has enabled the mental training sessions which will help young cricketers in performance enhancement and stress management, Foundation chairman Makarand Waingankar said in a release.

The first batch of twelve boys from the megapolis have completed the preliminary six mental health training sessions carried out by Mugdha Bavare and her team of sports psychologists.

Mugdha and her team is also currently involved with similar mental training for members of India's Olympic squad across various sports, it added. Cricketers Foundation, whose primary objective is to help Mumbai's retired coaches, umpires, groundsmen, players and other support staff with financial assistance, decided to launch this initiative with the sole objective of making Mumbai's cricket stronger and sharper.

It also said that it is heartening to see legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli sharing their own personal struggles with anxiety and hopefully these issues will no longer be seen as a "taboo". The role of Cricketers' Foundation will be that of a key driver and facilitator, associating with the right mental training faculty. Currently, around 60 teenaged boys and girls have been identified for the mental training sessions.