Injury incidence within male elite New Zealand cricket from the early T20 era: 2009-2015

A similar injury profile observed in franchise men's and women's cricket in England and Wales: injury surveillance analysis from the first three 'The Hundred' competitions

Objectives

To describe the injury profile of a novel format cricket competition ('The Hundred') and compare injury incidence and prevalence between the men's and women's competitions.

Methods

Medical staff prospectively collected injury data from the eight men's and women's teams during the 2021-2023 competitions. Injury definitions and incidence calculations followed the international consensus statement.

Results

In the men's competition, 164 injuries were recorded, compared with 127 in the women's competition. Tournament injury incidence was 36.6 (95% CI 31.4 to 42.7) and 32.5 (95% CI 27.3 to 38.7)/100 players/tournament in the men's and women's competition, respectively. Non-time-loss incidence (men's 26.6 (95% CI 22.2 to 31.8), women's 24.6 (95% CI 20.1 to 30.0)/100 players/tournament) was higher than time-loss incidence (men's 10.0 (95% CI 7.5 to 13.5), women's 7.9 (95% CI 5.6 to 11.3)/100 players/tournament). Injury prevalence was 2.9% and 3.6% in the men's and women's competitions, respectively. Match fielding was the most common activity at injury in both competitions. The thigh and hand were the most common body location time-loss injury in the men's and women's competitions, respectively.

Conclusion

A similar injury profile was observed between the men's and women's competition. Preventative strategies targeting thigh injuries in the men's competition and hand injuries in the women's competition would be beneficial. Compared with published injury rates, 'The Hundred' men's presents a greater risk of injury than Twenty20 (T20), but similar to one-day cricket, with 'The Hundred' women's presenting a similar injury risk to T20 and one-day cricket. Additional years of data are required to confirm these findings.

Exploring Injury Profiles in Non-elite Cricketers: Harnessing Online Surveys for Effective Assessment

Background

An increase in the on-field intensity in modern cricket, results in an increased number of player injuries. Integration and easy access to professional physiotherapy, technology, rehab protocols, and mental/physical conditioning aid in early return to sports in the injured; however, at the grassroots, these facilities may not be available with untrained support staff and limited funds. Injuries can go unnoticed and, therefore, there is a need for an easy process of identification and documentation of such injuries. We devised a questionnaire-based survey to evaluate its effectiveness at the junior level of professional cricket.

Materials and Methods

An Online self-administered questionnaire was prepared and the link was given to active Union Territory Cricket Academy (UTCA), Chandigarh, cricketers of any gender between 15 and 35 years of age, through different online platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram and emails, for the submission of their responses.

Results

The questionnaire was administered to 98 participants out of which 77 participants' responses were evaluated (41 males and 36 females). 74/77 participants were below 30 years of age. There were 18 wicketkeepers, 33 bowlers and 26 batsmen as per their major role in the team. 37/77 cricketers (20 males, 17 females) had injuries during the previous 2 years; this included 17 bowlers, 11 batsmen and 9 wicketkeepers. The most common body part injured in the survey were fingers (12) followed by the back (7). The amount of training time lost, reported in the survey ranged from a week up to 1 year.

Conclusion

Online surveys could be the first step to accumulating data and making initial player profiles, starting even at junior levels of cricket. Further detailed evaluations may be performed after this, and coaches and administrators could potentially profile cricket injuries and identify chronic issues.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43465-023-00995-3.

Beyond the Boundary: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Published Research on Injuries in Cricket

Background

Cricket, a sport immensely popular in the Indian subcontinent and Commonwealth countries, boasts a staggering global following of over 1 billion enthusiasts. However, injuries in cricket are prevalent, resulting in detrimental effects on player performance and leading to substantial absenteeism from the game. In recent times, there has been a surge in interest on the epidemiology, biomechanics, and prevention of cricket-related injuries. To gain comprehensive insights into the existing research landscape, we present a bibliometric analysis of the published research on cricket injuries.

Materials

The Web of Science database was searched using a well-defined search strategy. Original research articles looking at any aspect of injuries in cricket were included. Search results were imported into the R Bibliometrix package for analysis. Analysis of bibliometric parameters included top authors, journals, countries and keywords. Co-occurrence networks were generated and thematic mapping was performed to identify emerging research topics.

Observations

423 publications from 126 journals were included. An increasing trend in publications was noted. JW Orchard was the highest published author; Australia was the highest published country and the Journal of Science and Sport in Medicine had the highest number of publications. Fast bowlers were the most extensively researched and the major research was noted to focus on three niche areas, i.e., epidemiology, consensus definitions and spinal issues in fast bowlers. Research on batsmen, wicketkeepers and fielders was relatively sparse. Furthermore, we observed limited representation of research from the Indian subcontinent, despite cricket's immense popularity in the region.

Conclusions

Our study findings highlight that majority of the cricket injury research stems from developed countries. The primary research areas include epidemiology, injury prevention, and biomechanics, with a particular focus on fast bowlers. However, much more has to be done to encourage research publications, focused on batsmen, wicketkeeper and fielders, as well as cricket in the developing world. These insights are essential for researchers seeking to delve into cricket-related studies and organizations aiming to advance injury prevention research in cricket.