An England cricketer flew home from the World Cup with depression yesterday – as BBC pundit Geoffrey Boycott came under fire for criticising his decision. Michael Yardy returned to his wife and two children with England potentially only two games from the final. But Boycott, 70, claimed the illness was down to the player’s lack of talent.
He said he never had to worry about depression when he was playing for England because he was ‘a better player’. And he said Yardy, 30, could not handle the pressure at the highest level. Last night mental health charities attacked Boycott’s comments as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘ill-advised’.
Boycott has been highly critical of spin bowler Yardy during the World Cup, which is being held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The former Yorkshire and England batsman, who works as a radio pundit for Test Match Special, made the remarks about depression in an interview on the 5 Live Breakfast Show with Nicky Campbell yesterday.
He said he was ‘very surprised’ Yardy had been forced to return home due to his ‘prolonged’ battle with the illness. ‘He must have been reading my comments about his bowling,’ Boycott said. ‘That must have upset him because it’s obviously too much for him at this level. ‘If any blame is attached it’s partly to the selectors because I’m sorry, he’s not good enough at this level.
‘He was always going to be a liability or a poor choice at international level out here.’BBC reporter Mark Pougatch, who was sitting with Boycott in Ahmedabad, India, during the interview, frantically stressed that Yardy was suffering from an illness. But Boycott continued: ‘I’ve been, with respect, a better player. I always got picked and played pretty good. So I’ve not been in that position where my quality of play has been poor and got to me mind wise. ‘The only time I was upset and down was in 1978 when I lost my mother and Yorkshire sacked me as captain two days later when I hadn’t even buried her.
‘I went to Australia and played like a lemming. My mind was in a mess but it wasn’t the same type of illness this young man has got.’Campbell acknowledged that the BBC had received ‘quite a lot’ of complaints.
Boycott, who played 108 Test Matches for England, tried to repair the damage done in a subsequent interview on Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘It’s obviously very sad,’ he said. ‘But until you’ve had depression I don’t think you’re qualified to talk about it.’
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane, said: ‘We are concerned about any suggestion that depression is not a potentially serious and disabling condition. ‘It is wrong and old-fashioned to regard it as a form of weakness, or a disguise for a lack of achievement. ‘It takes courage to speak out as Michael Yardy has done.’
A spokesman for Mind, another charity, said Boycott’s ‘ill-advised’ comments suggested that depression was an illness borne out of an inability to handle the pressure and were clearly wrong. Yardy, who plays for Sussex, is not the first England cricketer to suffer from depression. Marcus Trescothick retired from the international game in 2008 after a long fight with the illness. England play Sri Lanka in the quarter finals of the World Cup tomorrow.