Bengaluru: After retiring at the age of 31, former Indian cricketer David Jude Johnson spent a significant portion of his time juggling jobs, coaching assignments, and anything that would bring in some income, and keep him busy.
He held jobs with State Bank of India, MRF, DTDC, and then as the CEO of a chain of schools, but he kept veering back to cricket coaching assignments. However, the fervour, with which he used to play the sport, was missing.
David died on 20 June after falling off the balcony of his fourth-floor apartment in Bengaluru’s Kothanur. He was 53. The police are treating this as a case of suicide.
A complaint has been filed under section 174(c) of the Code for Criminal Procedure, which provides for preparation of inquest report in case of an unnatural death, or death under suspicious conditions.
“Going by what the family is saying, he hadn’t consumed alcohol for the last 3-4 days. But if it is found in his body, we will resume inquiry,” said one police officer, directly involved in the case, requesting anonymity.
The final report on the cause of death is expected soon.
Having retired from international cricket with just two test matches under his belt, David was unable to find the same satisfaction as he did when he bowled at breakneck speed on the pitch, people who knew the former pacer said.
“Sometimes, he wished he could have played you know… more… so that we could have had a better life,” Aurelia, David’s wife, told ThePrint.
David made his first-class debut in November 1992 for Karnataka, and then his test debut with the Indian national team in October 1996. But after just two test matches — one against Australia and then in South Africa — he was never called back.
Don Johnson, David’s older brother, said that it was very unusual for players to be dropped after one match, when there were people who would accompany the team and did not play a single match. According to him, that may not have been the reason behind David’s suspected suicide, but it did have a profound impact on him.
“After he was dropped, he played a Ranji trophy match, where I think he bagged five wickets and a 100 (in the same game). But he was still ignored by the Indian selectors. He took that to heart,” Don told ThePrint.
Discussing mental health was barely the norm at the time, forcing the likes of David and many others like him to supposedly suffer in silence and try to move on with life.
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‘Depressed and drowning in debt’
Rigorous physical training for a sport is a daunting task, but experts say mental health is impacted, too. In the 2022 book, The Athlete’s Paradox: Adaptable Depression, Weronika Jasmina Forys and Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa wrote that while some athletes manage to find the balance between mental and physical well-being, “others suffer the consequences of overcompensating for perfect physical states and compromising their mental well-being for physical superiority”.
Former Indian bowler Praveen Kumar had also opened up on his battle of being forgotten in an interview to Indian Express in January 2020. He said that he once took his revolver, got into the car and sped away on the highway from Meerut towards Haridwar, wanting to “end it”.
“Any sport requires a lot of mental strength. When someone is dropped or not selected for a team, especially the national side, it takes a toll on them. Some may get dejected, which leads to wrong habits, while others feel motivated to prove themselves and come back with stronger performance,” Muthukumar Vilumani, a physiotherapist, who worked with the Indian cricket team for nearly a decade, told ThePrint.
David’s family and friends are yet to come to terms with the loss or the alleged troubles that he lived with. There are contradictory accounts of David’s apparent mental condition, especially in the last few years, depending on whom you ask.
Some said that he was depressed, while his wife said that he was a “jovial” person, who would always try to make people around him happy.
According to at least two people, David was supposedly suffering from depression, had a drinking problem and was drowning in debt.
Just after David’s retirement around 2001, former Indian cricketer Brijesh Patel had organised a benefit match, the proceeds of which were used by David to buy two apartments in Bengaluru’s Neelasandra.
This was Patel’s way of ensuring that former cricketers had a home and steady income. This plan also included a pension of around Rs 45,000 from the cricket board for former Indian players.
According to Aurelia, it was “David’s decision” to eventually sell off these apartments as he had loans to pay off. His brother said that no one knew about these debts or if David was paying for someone else’s mistakes.
David was heading a chain of schools, when the COVID-19 restrictions came into effect and the cash flow stopped, forcing him to open his coaching academy in 2021.
“He was in poor financial condition and coaching assignments with NCA (National Cricket Academy) had stopped,” said an associate of David, who worked with him at the David Johnson Cricket Academy, requesting anonymity.
The person referred to David as a “Kadak” (strict) coach to about 25 students, but he soon started skipping sessions.
“I was not a coach, but only invested in setting up the academy. After some time, it became difficult to explain his absence,” the associate said. The academy had to be closed down barely a year later.
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Brief stint with national team
Around 1989, Samiullah Shariff, a former cricketer, noticed two young pacers, clocking breakneck speeds with a Tennis ball in a local match at Bengaluru’s railway grounds.
Barely 15 at the time and playing for the local “Jaya Karnataka” team, Dodda Ganesh and David, were standout performers, who went on to play for Karnataka, and then the national team.
“Shariff saw him (David) and encouraged him. Irfan Sait from Swastik Union, who has his own academy now…also helped him,” Ganesh, a long-time friend of Johnson, told ThePrint.
According to the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), David took 125 wickets in 39 first-class matches with an average of 28.63 and three wickets in two (international) test matches with an average of 47.66. He also scored a ton with the bat.
Sports journalist Vedam Jaishankar said that David’s bowling speed of 157.8 kmph in his test debut possibly makes him one of the quickest bowlers the country has seen.
“The statistics alone won’t tell you the tale of the impact he had. Because for many of the wickets the others took, he (David) had already softened up the batsman,” Jaishankar added.
David, who was just five feet and ten inches tall, didn’t look as menacing as some of the others in the game, according to cricket writers, but his bouncers would skid off the pitch, making them unplayable.
Joseph Hoover, a former cricket writer and player from Bengaluru, said that Johnson “never compromised” till the last ball was bowled or the last run was scored.
Ganesh compared David to English cricketer Darren Gough, who had a similar sling action.
Those who have known David say that he was considered ‘arrogant’, which was not palatable to the cricketing boards.
Jaishankar said that David spoke only English, Kannada and Tamil, even when playing with the national team, where the language mostly used was Hindi. The mismatch made David and other players “uncomfortable”.
“You know how Indian cricket is. A lot of people in cricket don’t like that kind of thing. I think we didn’t know how to handle him. He was definitely one of the most talented guys we had. I think they (the boards) needed an excuse to get rid of him,” he added.
After his second test match — the last one that he would play for India — he was sent back from South Africa. There are varying accounts of why this was. While some say that there were unsavoury incidents, which led to him being sent home, the likes of Ganesh have a different version.
“Actually, he was not named in the one-day team. He was selected only for the test team,” he said.
‘Hallucinations’
David had also been suffering from different medical issues in the time leading up to his death. A year ago, he had visited the hospital with his brother to seek treatment for leg pain.
His wife said that David was also being treated for anaemia and could barely retain anything he ate. He had also been sent to rehab, which his wife said “had nothing to do with” his death.
On 20 June, the day he died, Aurelia had called Don, his brother, at around 8.30 am, saying that David was experiencing some form of hallucinations “again”.
Don said that Aurelia would mention David’s “hallucinations”, in her brief and interspersed interactions with him. Don, however, said that he, or his brothers, never sensed anything when they met him.
At 11.45 am, Aurelia called Don again, this time to inform him that David had “fallen off” the balcony. She even asked for money to pay for the ambulance, he said.
Aurelia said, “Right before his death, he told me that he was going to make a call… I told him that I would keep his glass of milk, which he usually had, ready. He said he would go out, make the call and come back, and that’s it. Those were his last words.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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