There are obviously huge advantages to social media, especially in a day and age favouring communication and outreach. You can be heard, believed, understood and be part of a growing community and you can mobilise support towards a right or just cause. You can be at the precipice of a much vaunted change that you can lead. But at the same time since everybody, just about anybody out there, has a view point or isn’t afraid of emoting anymore, you can find yourself at the harrowing end of criticism.
Criticism that can be far from constructive and could lead to mental anxiety and when trolled badly- and as seen in many cases- unnecessarily, traumatised. This can hurt sportspersons a lot, truth be told. But there are always smarter ways of fending off the excesses of social media especially in front of a contest or in the wake of a contest or its build up. A prominent batter; Tamil Nadu’s Sai Sudharsan showed the way in his recent appearance on ace former off spinner Ashwin’s YouTube channel interaction.
So what happened and what did Sai share?
Gujarat Titans batter Sai Sudharsan recently spoke about how he prepares mentally before a match during a conversation with former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin on Ashwin’s YouTube channel. Sudharsan explained that he follows a fixed routine in the lead-up to every game. As part of this, he avoids using social media both on the day before the match and on match day itself.
He said he does this to limit distractions and avoid taking in too much information, which helps him stay mentally fresh and focused for the game. Even during tournaments, he tries to keep his social media use to a minimum. The left-handed batter has been with Gujarat Titans since making his IPL debut in 2022 and has emerged as one of their most consistent performers.
In 40 matches so far, Sudharsan has scored 1,793 runs at an impressive average of 49.80 and a strike rate of 145.89, including two centuries and 12 half-centuries.
