Many a time, all in the mind

'When a man falls, look at where he slips, not where he falls,' goes a saying, so where was Kohli slipping? Inside or outside his head?

In the just completed tour of New Zealand, Virat Kohli went through a horrible batting slump and lost his ICC ranking as the world's best batsman to Steve Smith, the brilliant Australian player. Since then, Virat has been under harsh and unfair criticism from supporters, former players, and cricket reporters. Famous all-rounder and former India captain Kapil Dev suggested that Virat should practise harder because his reflexes might be slowing down and his eyesight might be deteriorating.

A cricket reporter went technical and claimed that Kohli's failure was the result of a head problem, not an internal head problem but an external one, namely incorrect positioning of the head when playing certain strokes. I am often reminded of the old African saying: "When a man falls, look at where he slips, not where he falls." Was Kohli's slipping inside or outside his head?

Another writer recalled Kohli's inability to cope with the well planned bowling strategies of England's fast bowlers in 2014 and suggested that the New Zealand fast bowlers had taken a leaf out of England's playbook. Hence, the reason for Kohli's run of failures. That might be true, but let's remember what happened on Kohli's next tour of England (593 runs in five Tests).

It didn't take legendary India opener Virender Sehwag long to come to the defence of India's best player. He said that every good player goes through a lean patch and Kohli is no different. He claimed that Tendulkar, Lara, Richards and he himself have all experienced performance slumps. To push back on Kapil's suggestion he said that Kohli certainly doesn't have hand-eye coordination errors. Hand-eye issues deteriorate over a period of time. Not overnight!

So what do we mean when we say that someone is in a performance slump? If we look at it from a slightly different perspective we could say that a slump is a dramatic loss of confidence that is always accompanied by anxiety, poor concentration and poor performance.

Sir Garfield Sobers the world's greatest all-round cricketer once told me: "In most cases of slumps, players believe that the cause of their problem is mechanical or technical in nature and spend a lot of time fiddling with their technique. But that often makes matters worse. The slump may be started by a mechanical or technical fault but in the end it is always due to poor mental functioning. The cause of the problem is often trivial and a slight change in thinking or concentration can be responsible for major slumps.

Personal problems off the field can also be a cause. Believe me, you don't usually find the cause or solution in the body. You must look to your mind, in particular your thinking and concentration. Only after you have done this should you look in other areas."

Ian Chappell, the great former Australian cricket captain reiterates Sir Garfield's comments: "Your confidence and concentration are messed up when you are in a slump. In this state players examine their technique carefully and pick it apart bit by bit. The people around them then offer all sorts of advice and often suggest that they change important aspects of their game that worked well for them in the past. The players must learn to protect themselves from that type of advice. In players who have a reasonable history of success, a slump is usually due to poor mental functioning rather than to any great technical problems."

Golf is an extremely demanding game and it is not unusual for the best golfers in the world to experience occasional performance slumps. Greg Norman, the world's No. 1 golfer before Tiger Woods came on the scene, did not escape that fate. In one of his worst ever slumps, he sought my help. Here is Norman's account of that interaction in his book, My Story.

He wrote: "It was in a mood of desperation that I phoned Dr Rudi Webster in Australia. For over half an hour I told him of my plight, and my real fears about the way my game was crumbling, and while I poured out my problems across 12,000 miles, Dr Webster listened carefully. I told him about my lack of confidence, and how I believed I could not continue to play at the top level and do myself justice unless I regained confidence quickly.

"When I finished explaining my problems, Dr Webster calmly set about reassuring me, emphasising that my mind and the way I controlled it on the golf course was as important as any shot I might hit during the tournament.

"I followed his advice with devastatingly successful results in the weeks ahead. Dr Webster had given me a completely new outlook, a new philosophy, to take to the heat of battle and I wanted to test it. I was ready. After four days at Chepstow (Wales), I walked off the last green not only with the Dunlop Masters title beside my name but with it achieved in a manner that restored all my confidence, and convinced me that the money I had spent calling Dr Webster in Melbourne was probably the best investment I had made. I won the title with a 17 under par total of 267, the biggest winning margin in British golf in 17 years."

If Kohli was indeed in a slump, it was not a major slump. He will soon bounce back and will take it out on bowlers around the world. In the meantime he should follow Ian Chappell's recommendation and respectfully guard against the advice of critics and well-wishers alike and trust his own instincts and his powerful inner resources to resolve his current setback and get back to winning ways. He did so in 2014 following the tour of England and will do so again following the New Zealand setback.

Grenada-based Dr Rudi Webster is a renowned sports psychologist

Clayton Murzello's column Pavilion End will be back next week Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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