Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers Association
Former and current professional cricketers reconnect to combat loneliness.
The PCA, with the support of its registered charity the Professional Cricketers’ Trust, has today launched the Talk to Teammates campaign to help combat isolation and loneliness amongst the PCA membership in lockdown.
With many current and former players feeling the effects of a third national lockdown in under a year, PCA members are being encouraged to reconnect with current and past teammates, whether it’s via Zoom, a phone call, WhatsApp or even a handwritten letter.
PCA members Stephen Peters, Nasser Hussain, Alex Tudor, Dani Hazell and Aaron Beard, along with Trust President David Graveney, have featured in a launch video to explain the aims of the campaign.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Photo CC BY-SA 3.0
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 31% of UK adults reported feeling ‘lockdown loneliness’ during the initial Covid-19 restrictions in April 2020, and that figure is likely to have increased during a winter lockdown.
The Talk to Teammates campaign reaffirms the PCA’s commitment to supporting its members in the area of mental health, and will sit alongside other current provisions including the Thrive mental health wellbeing app, which is available to all PCA members.
Other resources include the PCA’s Social Isolation Guide, created during the first national lockdown, which includes tips on how to keep your mind fresh during this unprecedented period of social distancing.
The Trust is also there for PCA members 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for current and past professional cricketers and their immediate families to fall back on in difficult times. In 2019 alone, the players’ charity supported 84 individual cases in the area of mental health.
“Whether you’ve been out of the game for five, 10 or 20 years, everyone knows someone who has slipped off the radar and lost touch with the game.”
STEPHEN PETERS
You can play your part in the Talk to Teammates campaign by thinking of people within the cricket community who would appreciate a call, and by working together we can go a long way to combatting loneliness and isolation in 2021.
PCA Director of Development and Welfare and Trust Director Ian Thomas said: “Both the PCA and the Professional Cricketers’ Trust are committed to looking out for the welfare of PCA members.
“We hope that the Talk to Teammates campaign will help to improve the wellbeing of the PCA membership – and in particular former players – during what has been an extremely challenging time for us all.
“My message to any PCA member reading this would be to pick up the phone, look through your contact list and take a moment to consider those who would benefit from a call.”
Former Northants man Stephen Peters, who helped to launch the campaign, said: “It’s an absolutely vital time for current and former players to pick up the phone and reach out to those teammates who they might not have heard from for a while.
“Whether you’ve been out of the game for five, 10 or 20 years, everyone knows someone who has slipped off the radar and lost touch with the game, who could potentially really use a call right now. By talking to those teammates, we can help to bring the game closer together in 2021.”
Name of Author: Professional Cricketers Association
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
