Sussex and Somerset, counties whose sweeping grounds have spawned scores of great players including Ted Dexter and current Test bowler Andy Caddick, have the highest suicide rates in the country, according to David Frith, author of Silence of the Heart , an investigation into the phenomenon.

The findings have disturbed Britain's cricketing world and pose the question of whether cricket attracts vulnerable people or whether the game has a unique capacity to destabilise its players.

'Cricket has this dreadful, hidden burden,' said Frith, one of Britain's best-known cricket writers and a former editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly . 'It must now answer the very serious question of whether it gradually transforms unwary cricket-loving boys into brooding, insecure and ultimately self-destructive men.'

The suicide rate among British men is 1.07 per cent, but according to Frith's research, the rate among cricketers here is 1.77 per cent - making them 75 per cent more likely to take their own life.

But the game's toll overseas is even higher. In South Africa 4.12 per cent of players take their own lives. In New Zealand the rate is 3.92 per cent and in Australia 2.75 per cent.

'There is a relative consolation from knowing that Britain's rate is below that of other countries but the worry is that in general, cricket's casualty rate is way above the general average,' said Frith.

Frith believes that, instead of susceptible people being attracted to the game, cricket puts a strain on nerves that can be as destructive as the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by war veterans.

'It is the uncertainty, day in and day out, that plays a sinister beat on the cricketer's soul,' he said.

'Golfers, footballers, tennis players and boxers all have an assurance that they have a chance to recover from early defeat in the game but cricket embodies uncertainty on the grand scale and on a relentless daily basis.

'The nature of cricket is such that it tears at the nerves. Half-hearted cricketers are extremely rare. This game gets a grip on people such as only religious fanatics might recognise.

'There is a compulsive nature to the game and an inherent uncertainty which could damage the soul.'

The majority of the suicides over the past 30 years took place in the Eighties and Nineties, with the fewest in the Sixties, and were of players aged between 40 and 49 who had been forced into retirement.

Famous cricket suicides include A.E. Stoddart, the most glamorous cricketer of the 1880s and captain of England from 1894, who shot himself in 1915 after his career ended; Albert Shrewsbury, the finest professional batsman of his day; and William Scotton.

Stoddart and Shrewsbury walked out to open the batting for England on 17 July 1893, passing another suicide-to-be, Australia's Billy Bruce, days after the funeral of Scotton, who had killed himself at his home near Lord's.

David Bairstow, the burly, life-loving Yorkshire captain, killed himself in 1998 aged 46, joining sporting heroes Sid Barnes and Jack Iverson. Hansie Cronje, the shamed South African captain, has said he came close to committing suicide after the match-fixing scandal broke.

Frith believes the recent increase in recorded suicides could be the result of a waning in the stigma surrounding the act and a new willingness to identify it as cause of death.

'Logic insists that there must be many other suicides still unrevealed,' he said. 'And many that will always remain so.'

The solution, he believes, is for former players to stay connected with the game through broadcasting, umpiring or coaching, after they have retired.

Mike Brearley, the former England captain, is not sure cricket is to blame for the heavy toll it takes on the lives of its players.

'The uncertainty of cricket is not always glorious or exciting; it can be disillusioning and anxiety-creating,' he said. 'And then, after their career is over, many ex-cricketers feel they have been lured into prostituting their name to fit in with the starstruck desires of others.

'These men lose their authenticity and that humiliation, which contrasts dramatically with the excitement and successes that went before, can be terrible.

'But it is not cricket which causes suicide: people kill themselves for reasons that are internal to themselves and their histories.'

amelia.hill@observer.co.uk