{"id":13894,"date":"2026-05-07T03:05:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/2026\/05\/07\/salil-ankola-ex-india-pacer-and-national-selector-battling-depression-undergoing-treatment-at-mental-health-care-centre-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:05:26","slug":"salil-ankola-ex-india-pacer-and-national-selector-battling-depression-undergoing-treatment-at-mental-health-care-centre-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/?p=13894","title":{"rendered":"Salil Ankola, ex-India pacer and national selector, battling depression; undergoing treatment at mental health care centre | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130876868,imgsize-38240,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/salil-ankola.jpg\" alt=\"Salil Ankola, ex-India pacer and national selector, battling depression; undergoing treatment at mental health care centre\" title=\"Salil Ankola\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>MUMBAI: Former India and Mumbai fast bowler and ex-national selector <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/salil-ankola\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Salil Ankola<\/a> is suffering from severe depression and has been admitted to a rehab centre near Pune, TOI has learnt.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"3\"\/>&#8220;Yes, Salil was suffering from depression and hence a couple of weeks ago, he got himself admitted to a mental health care centre near Pune. <!-- -->Salil was very upset ever since he lost his mother in Oct 2024, and was unable to process her passing away.<!-- --> So, recently, when he saw himself breaking down and was falling sick very often, he chose to get himself treated in a good place and in a peaceful environment, &#8221; Salil&#8217;s wife Ria Ankola told TOI.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@toisports\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"strong\" target=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>She informed that Ankola was on the path to recovery from his low phase. &#8220;We, as a family, are very happy that he has chosen to take a break instead of completely breaking down. <!-- -->He is recovering very well, working out regularly and will be back in no time to his first love, which was, is and will always be cricket, because he has always been a fighter and always comes out stronger than before. We, his family and his friends are always there to support him,\u201d Ria said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/> <\/p>\n<div class=\"wLCOS vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"ap_Bf\">\n<div class=\"ZM4zO\">\n<p><i class=\"bo2C4\"\/> <span>Watch<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <!-- -->Vaibhav Sooryavanshi India debut: The calls are getting louder<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>\u201cThe cricket fraternity has been very kind to support him in his decision of taking a small break from work to heal himself,&#8221; she added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>Almost a couple of decades back, Ankola underwent rehab due to alcohol addiction, but it&#8217;s learnt that this time, it is a case of depression as he quit alcohol long back. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>Ankola was appointed as the national selector on January 7, 2023, and was in the post till Aug 2024. He was also Mumbai&#8217;s chief selector from 2021-23.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>The 58-year-old has been commentating in domestic cricket and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">IPL<\/a> for the past few years.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/>Ankola played a solitary Test for India against Pakistan at Karachi in 1989, and was the other debutant in the match besides legends <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/sachin-tendulkar\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Sachin Tendulkar<\/a> and <!-- -->Waqar Younis<!-- -->. He took two wickets in that match. He had also played 20 ODIs, capturing 13 wickets. A key pacer for Mumbai in the 90s, Ankola featured in 54 first-class matches in which he took 181 wickets, with best figures of 6-47. The Mumbaikar retired at the age of just 28 in 1997 because of a tumour in his chin, due to which couldn\u2019t pursue his cricket career any further.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"37\"\/>Subsequently, he became an actor, and appeared in several TV serials and films.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"39\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/news\/salil-ankola-ex-india-pacer-and-national-selector-battling-depression-undergoing-treatment-at-mental-health-care-centre\/articleshow\/130876783.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUMBAI: Former India and Mumbai fast bowler and ex-national selector Salil Ankola is suffering from severe depression and has been admitted to a rehab centre near Pune, TOI has learnt.&#8220;Yes, Salil was suffering from depression and hence a couple of weeks ago, he got himself admitted to a mental health care centre near Pune. Salil&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}