India's premier fast bowler Mohammed Shami has revealed that he contemplated committing suicide on three occasions during the time he was recovering from injury after the 2015 World Cup. During an Instagram live chat with India's limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma, Shami said that the injury, coupled with the hype over his personal issues worried him at the time.
"In 2015 I was injured at the World Cup. After that it took some 18 months to get back (into the Indian team) and this was the most painful phase of my career," said Shami.
"You know how difficult rehab gets and after that came the family problems. That was going on and in between all that I had an accident which was around 10-12 days before the IPL. A lot of hype was going in the media also with my personal issues," he said.
Shami then revealed that he would've left the game if he didn't have support from his family, adding that a family member always used to keep an eye on him in case he 'jumps out of the apartment'.
"I feel if I didn't have support from my family, then I would have left cricket. I had thought of suicide thrice at the time. Someone used to sit with me in my house to keep an eye on me. The house was on the 24th floor and they were afraid that I might jump out of my apartment," he said.
"But my family was with me and there is no bigger power than that. They were telling me that every problem has some solution or the other, just focus on your game. Get lost in whatever you are good at. So leaving all of it behind, I was practicing in the nets, I was doing running exercises. I didn't really know what I was doing, I was that stressed.
"After practice I used to get sad and my family would tell me to just focus. My brother was with me, a few of my friends were with me and I will never forget them and if they were not there I would have done something drastic."
