KEY POINTS:
It has been written that cricketers do not have a monopoly on depression, but the game sometimes seems to have a monopoly on them.
Anybody who has worked day-to-day with top-level cricketers will testify to the accuracy of that statement.
To the layman, who sees just the glamorous
side of international sport, it seems inconceivable that these talented athletes would want for anything, especially happiness. After all, aren't they leading the sort of lives we all wish we were?
But cricket is a brutal beast. It preys on human weakness like no other game.
What other sport can take you on a roller-coaster ride for seven hours a day, five days in a row? At the end of those five days your failings are laid bare, recorded for posterity.
With each failure the pressure is ratcheted up to obscene levels. Geoff Howarth, outwardly one of New Zealand's calmest batsmen, would be seen throwing up in the dressing room before going out to bat.
In sports such as rugby, performance is often subjective; but in cricket the only thing that matters is what is in the scorebook. You cannot gloss over a low score or miserable bowling figures. It's a paradox in that it's an individual sport wrapped up in a team concept.
The tours are long. England arrived here two weeks ago and won't leave until the end of March.
Relationships via phone and email are never as fulfilling.
Studies have shown the divorce rate of county cricketers in England is much higher than the national average - and no cricketer would be surprised by that.
The revelation that Lou Vincent is suffering from depression is sad but not surprising.
He joins a growing list of high-profile cricketers who have laid bare their mental health demons.
Under normal circumstances, Marcus Trescothick would be opening the batting for England on this tour.
However, after leaving two tours because of stress, it is doubtful he will tour with England again.
Shaun Tait, the Australian firebrand bowler, pulled out of all cricket last month after suffering physical and emotional exhaustion.
"He's such a good bloke," fellow fast bowler Shane Bond told me last week, proving that these insidious demons do not discriminate on character.
Geoff Boycott once wrote: "When you are suffering from stress, you just want to run away.
"You can't face the pressure any more and you need to escape. It is not like a broken leg or a bloody nose. There are no external symptoms and nobody can see your suffering. It is a silent illness."
And Boycott succeeded far, far more than he failed.
