I Was Completely Destroyed: Veda Krishnamurthy Breaks Down After Sister's Death

Veda Krishnamurthy on mental health: The Indian cricketer has revealed she was "completely destroyed" after losing her mother and sister to the deadly COVID-19 recently. The woman cricketer called herself a slow learner, claiming that she will eventually tune herself out of the grief, however, for now, "mental strength is important" for the family.

She further stressed on finding the right mental health assistance in such a critical situation. As many as nine members of the senior cricketer's family battled the disease and her mother and sister passed away within two weeks of each other last month in Karnataka. The 28-year-old told ESPNcricinfo that she is a "big believer in what destiny holds for you" but when she lost her close family she "was completely destroyed". "All of us were broken to pieces", she added.

Veda Krishnamurthy on mental health: She lost two of her family members to coronavirus. Her sister passed away on May 6 after her mother's untimely demise earlier in April. On May 10, she took to Twitter and shared a heartfelt tribute to her lost family members.

Further detailing the trauma she had to endure at this young age, the youngest of four siblings, Krishnamurthy revealed that she has been putting up a brave face for the rest of the family. She stated that she had to learn to move on in these testing couple of weeks but the memories keep coming back to haunt her. The middle-order batter also mentioned that she was the only one in the family not to contract the virus and ended up coordinating all the medical needs at that time.

Speaking more about the mental aspect of dealing with a health crisis, Krishnamurthy said her mother and sister also suffered from anxiety while battling the illness. "In my home town, Kadur, about 230km north-west of Bangalore, she learned that everybody else in the family had tested positive, including the kids. I don't know, but maybe that affected her," she referred to her mother's situation the night before she died of the virus.

Krishnamurthy is one of India's star players. She has participated in 48 ODIs and 76 T20 Internationals. She was however excluded from the Indian squad for this month's tour of England. The BCCI had received backlash for not keeping in touch with the bereaved player in the time of crisis.

At the time of her debut in 2011 against England, Krishnamurthy was just 18 years old — youngest in the team. She has been a regular member of the national team and in 2017, she became a sensational batswoman who would pair with then Captain Mithali Raj and guide India to a historic win in the World Cup. Read more on Veda Krishnamurthy’s cricketing story here.

Watch our interview with Veda Krishnamurthy here: