Sussex and former England cricket international has lent his support to the work of State of Mind and our partners at CALM and Opening Up Cricket
Mike Yardy effectively ended his international career by flying home from the 2011 World Cup during the knockout stages to get help for depression.
He is still seeing a therapist but has not had a serious bout of depression for more than a year, and is studying psychology with the thought that he might work with sportspeople once he has retired. Mike can be seen with State of Mind co-founder Dr. Phil Cooper 
The project of Opening Up cricket has come as a result of the tragic passing of Sefton Park’s Alex Miller in late 2012. Now, in 2014, this cricket focused group has been formed to continue publicising the work of CALM in the setting that Alex was most happy. Throughout the season short sessions were delivered to clubs in the Liverpool & District Competition aimed at providing support for mental health wellbeing to ensure that our great sport does not lose any more young men to suicide.
Key to our mission is to remove the stigma of mental health and to get men talking about problems, something which isn’t done enough currently. Moving forward to 2015 we look to confirm links with a range of partners to embed mental health wellbeing and suicide prevention in clubs and the wider cricket community. We will continue to offer short introductory talks as well as further practical cricket sessions to integrate mental wellbeing into physical fitness.
We are always keen to talk about other potential projects and support where requested. To book a session or for more information contact Mark (mark_boyns@hotmail.com) or send us a message via twitter, @openingupcc
State of Mind would like to wish Opening Up Cricket all the very best for the future