I feel pressure, I feel scared too, admits M S Dhoni while speaking on mental health

His ice cool demeanour is the stuff of legends but former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has no qualms conceding that he is not immune to pressure and fear.

Dhoni, lending support to MFORE -- an initiative offering mind conditioning programs to achieve peak performance in sports --, offered his perspective on the issue of mental health.

"In India, I feel there is still a big issue of accepting that there is some weakness when it comes to the mental aspects, but we generally term it as mental illness," Dhoni was quoted as saying in a press release issued by MFORE.

MFORE stated that Dhoni made these comments while speaking to coaches from various sports during an interaction, which was organised before the country went into a lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Nobody really says that, when I go to bat, the first 5 to 10 deliveries my heart rate is elevated, I feel the pressure, I feel a bit scared because that's how everybody feels - how to cope with that?" the World ...