Mindful of mental health, Steve Smith opens up

Steve Smith has admitted he still has ‘difficult days’ more than a year after the ball-tampering scandal that cost him the captaincy.

Steve Smith hits out at Baulkham Hills High School in Sydney’s west on Tuesday at an event to mark Mental Health Month. He says he still has ‘difficult days’ more than a year after the ball-tampering scandal that cost him the Australian captaincy. Picture: Brett Costello

Steve Smith has admitted his mental health isn’t “smooth sailing” and that he still has “difficult days” more than a year after the South Africa ball-tampering scandal that cost him the Australian captaincy.

The top-order batsman, who previously said he struggled to get much sleep after the controversial South Africa incident, said he was “really fortunate” to have had a strong support network around him for the past year.

“My wife, my manager, my old man and my best mate — people that are close to me that I can talk to honestly — I’m really fortunate that I had those people when I was going through difficult times,” Smith said said at a Gotcha4Life event on Tuesday to coincide with Mental Health Month.

“It’s still not smooth sailing everyday, and to have those people around you that you can speak to I think is incredibly important.”

He added that his recent struggles with mental health were not so much affected by past events and that he’d mostly “moved on” from the ball-tampering fiasco.

Smith said his experience over the past year had increased his passion for raising awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention measures.

“I’m proud to be … working in the mental health space,” Smith said at the event which was held at a Baulkham Hills High School in Sydney’s northwest.

“Six men and two women a day are committing suicide in Australia and it’s simply unacceptable. There’s still plenty of work to do and I’m trying to do my bit to help this out.”

Tuesday’s event was centred around helping kids build mental fitness and it was the 25th school Smith had presented at through the Gotcha4Life campaign.

Smith said he had no immediate desire to return to the Australian captaincy despite rumours circulating in the media.

“At the moment I’m pretty chilled and relaxed where I’m at, (the captaincy) is not really on my radar,” Smith said.

“I’m comfortable doing what I’m doing at the moment, which is playing the game that I love, scoring as many runs that I can and helping whichever team I’m playing for win a game of cricket. I think Tim’s doing a terrific job and I haven’t had any sorts of conversations about any leadership aspirations.”