Australian Luke Pomersbach says he is ready to deliver in the new Indian Premier League (IPL) season after winning his battle with depression.
The middle-order batsman, who has returned to play again for 2011 runners-up the Royal Challengers Bangalore, announced last year he was taking a break from cricket for his own well being.
Pomersbach said he was now “on top of things” after suffering a bout of depression and was determined to make the most of the Twenty20 tournament, which started Wednesday.
“When you play a lot of cricket, sometimes you need a bit of a break and need to start thinking about other things in the life,” Pomersbach, 27, was quoted as saying in the Hindu newspaper on Thursday.
“There were a few things off the field that I needed to deal with and I have done that. I have seen a couple of specialists and I am right on top of things now. It was just a bit of a break and it freshened me up.” Pomersbach, who was once suspended by Western Australia after a drinking session, conceded he had made a few mistakes in the past.
“Some people deal with these problems better than others. Some people deal with them badly and make the wrong choices in life,” said Pomersbach, who represented Australia in just one Twenty20 international. “Unfortunately, I went down that path and made a few bad decisions. But I’ve learnt a lot from them and I suppose I’ve got that experience. “You shouldn’t even think about cricket when serious issues like that come up in your life. I suppose I’ve just got to get back to enjoying my game and look forward to my next game.”
Pomersbach said the IPL was the best learning curve for players like him with little international experience.
“It’s fantastic to be a part of this, particularly for someone who doesn’t have much international experience. It is great to be around guys like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Daniel Vettori,” he said.
“Hopefully, an opportunity will arise during the tournament and I’m ready to grab it with both the hands.”
Bangalore clash with Delhi Daredevils in their opening match on Saturday.
IPL buzz missing in Chennai: Many consider Chennai cricket fans to be the most passionate and knowledgeable in the country. After all, it were they who gave the Pakistan team a standing ovation on a lap of honour after the neighbours defeated India during the Asian Test Championship in 1999.
Even when it comes to the IPL, two-time winners Chennai Super Kings have enjoyed vociferous support, especially with the ‘whistle podu’ slogan they used to get the fans involved.
But this time around, the buzz around the IPL seems lower than before, even though officials insist that ticket sales have been excellent, with the opening game against the Mumbai Indians being sold out.
Throughout the city, there are few posters of the Super Kings to be seen, with the boundary wall of the MA Chidambaram Stadium looking like an odd yellow island in the middle of a pretty standard setting. Anup Biswas, a Kolkatan who works as an IT professional in Chennai, feels it is a case of the novelty of the IPL wearing off.
“The second season wasn’t played in India, and the first and third seasons were sort of like the honeymoon period for the IPL, when we all got swept away in the wave of glitz and glamour and paisa-vasool cricket. But how many times a year can you actually go to the ground and watch it? Eventually you have to get back to your jobs. I don’t think we fans have lost interest or are fatigued; it’s simply that the novelty has worn off,” he told Mail Today outside the Chepauk Stadium, where he had come looking for tickets.
There are others, like Delhibased P Sai Bhardwaj, who do not agree with Biswas. Bhardwaj won a radio contest to attend Tuesday’s opening ceremony, and is disappointed he will get to see only that, and not the opening match on Wednesday. “I come from a family of cricket buffs and so while it is great that I will get to see someone like Amitabh Bachchan with my own eyes, I wish I could see the opening match too. But that’s outside the ambit of the contest I won,” he told Mail Today.
For the true-blue Chennaiites, the IPL in general and the Super Kings in particular are still a big draw. “We feel a real sense that the team belongs to us and we support them wholeheartedly. What the Indian team did abroad was depressing, but we like to see good cricket, and hopefully by striking form in the IPL, the members of the national team can put us on the winning path again,” said T Sarath, who runs a sports goods store near the stadium.
