Cricket Australia to appoint mental health and wellbeing lead

The creation of this role comes in the wake of several of Australia's active players - male and female - forced into taking break for their mental health and wellbeing. Among the female internationals, Nicole Bolton was the first to take a sabbatical, before young allrounder Sophie Molineux did the same late last year. Men's allrounder Glenn Maxwell briefly stepped away from the game in order to deal with his mental health.

While most of these players withdrew due to issues stemming from the pressures of high-level cricket, the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the fickleness of the life of an athlete. Both cases have made clear the need for more emphasis on the area of mental health.

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While both the Australia men's and women's teams have dedicated sports psychologists - Michael Lloyd in charge of the men and Peter Clarke for the women - Drew Ginn, CA's high performance chief told ESPNcricinfo that the new position would allow for CA to have a resource dedicated entirely to mental wellbeing.

"The new Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead will give a greater focus on mental health at Cricket Australia, giving us an individual resource dedicated to this area. The role will also provide broader case management support for CA contracted players. It's a great chance to prioritise mental health. It will provide further reinforcement to our current psychologists working with our teams," Ginn said.

"To have a dedicated leader in a national role and having them focus on a national strategy, policy, future partnerships, critical case management and support for players and states is a positive step forward for the sport."

"This role is more important than ever, particularly in a world where mental health issues continue to be prevalent, particularly with the demands of elite cricket, Covid and all of the uncertainty. It's crucial for us to provide the right support and environment for our players, coaches and staff, and this builds on fantastic work being done by Michael Lloyd and Peter Clarke," he concluded