Managing Load In Cricket
Injuries in Cricket are largely dependant on the position and type of cricketer you are, however one thing the majority of these injuries have in common is that they are predominantly due to it’s repetitive nature, rather than the acute injuries regularly sustained in sports such as Basketball and Netball.
Initially I set out to look into shoulder related injuries in fast bowling, but after researching incidence rates of injuries in multiple levels and age groups, it is evident that lower back, abdominal muscle and hamstring/thigh injuries are by far the most commonly sustained.
Over the end of October and start of November in both 2019 and 2020, a steep increase in cricket related injuries presented themselves to the clinic, all of which were fast/pace bowlers and sustained gradual onset injuries of the Lumbar Spine (Lower Back), Shoulder and Hamstring.
Injury Statistics
Researching injury incidence in Senior and Junior cricket to look at whether the above trends are seen over a larger scale. In both levels of cricket lower back related injuries in fast bowlers are by far the most prevalent, with one study reporting 16% of fast bowlers sustaining back injuries and 52% of Junior fast bowlers had back pain at some point throughout the season (Dennis et al, 2005).
For elite athletes, a study looking at all Australian and state cricketers reported injuries over a 10 year period, per season on average four team members sustained hamstring injuries, two sustained lumbar, two sustained abdominal and two sustained shoulder injuries per season. Isolating bowlers in this study it was shown 20% of fast bowlers sustained injuries deeming them unable to play compared to 7.5% of batsmen (Orchard et al. 2014)
Contributing Factors
Fast bowlers have consistently been identified as the greatest risk of injury on each team, with predisposing factors including technique variability, poor physical preparation, and overuse or over loading.
Recently published research suggests that change in workload is perhaps the greatest risk factor for injury in fast bowlers and with match format changes to one day competition introducing a 20 over format, in theory this should assist in reducing injuries (Orchard et al. 2014)
B.C. Elliot (1999), a professor at the University WA’s Human Movement department describes two types of overuse injuries, one that records a high number of sub-maximal forces such as the ground reaction forces that cause lower back injuries in fast bowlers. The second, fewer repetitions of a higher intensity movement such as jumping in Gymnastics.
The first type of injuries are generally the result of repetitive “microtrauma” where forces, each lower than the critical limit of the specific tissue, combine to produce a fatigue effect over time (Dennis et al. 2005)
Within our clinic across multiple sports, hobbies and employment, poor physical preparation and overloading areas of the body are by far the most common causes of patients presenting with injuries.
With extended layoffs from all of the above areas, power-endurance and speed endurance tasks such as fast bowling are a recipe for concern, especially in the amateur cohort where physical preparation will take a back seat to other areas of daily living, or be difficulty to train specifically due to facility closures like gyms and sports grounds.
What can I do to reduce this happening to me?
The first thought for anyone looking to reduce the incidence of injury should be what is my workload, and the second is will I be able to handle this both short and long term?
Recommendations for junior fast bowlers are based around limiting the amount of balls you are permitted to bowl per training session and per game and they can be found in table 1 below.
When bowling limitations are adhered to research shows the incidence of injury reduced significantly, whereby fewer junior fast bowlers sustained a bowling related overuse injury. However using the same guidelines for professional bowlers found the incidence to be similar, proving the undeveloped skeletal system may serve as a pivotal factor in overuse injuries. As only 25% of junior bowlers who adhered to the program sustained an injury vs 59% of senior players Dennis et al. 2005.
Fast forward 7 years later to 2012 and the recommendations for workload have slightly increased as per they below table, however the same study showed from it’s survey that only 18 out of 170 Cricket Coaches enforced these Cricket Australia guidelines Soomro et al. 2018
Table II. Fast Bowler Workload Guidelines by Cricket Australia
Strength & Conditioning
When 170 coaches surveyed in the above mentioned study were asked what they would prescribe for fast bowlers the obvious came out on top. The top four areas recommended for resistance training were Lower back, abdominals, gluteals and hamstrings, which all have significant effect on the control of the pelvis and lower back, however only between 30 and 38 coaches out of the 170 recommended this type of training Soomro et al 2018. as seen in the across Table 3.
Table 3. Number of coaches who prescribed resistance training to particular areas of the body in Cricket Fast Bowlers.
Final Sign Off
Not only for high level athletes but all levels of sportspeople and occupations we regard strength and conditioning to match workload with very high importance. Employing not only exercise prescription but the appropriate testing to provide recommendations on reducing injury risk. These recommendations are based behind evidence in the appropriate fields such as the above studies and guidelines that they produce.
References:
Elliott, B. C. (1999). Overyse injuries in sport: A Biocmechanical approach.