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Injuries in first league and provincial cricketers and in schoolboy cricketers in South Africa have been reported to have a seasonal incidence of 49%. 1, 2 Injuries occurred in one of the three phases of play: batting, bowling, or fielding. Most occurred in bowling in both first league and provincial cricketers (42%) and in schoolboy cricketers (47.4%). Over 40% of injuries occurred during fielding in first league and provincial cricketers, and nearly 30% of injuries occurred during batting in schoolboys. Hand injuries occur as a result of being struck by the ball when fielding, and professionals are more likely to sustain hand injuries while batting. 3 Incidence of acute injuries in general in professional cricket in England is reported as 57.4 per 1000 days. Nearly 45% of injuries were to the lower limb in this cohort of county players. Incidence of injury was higher in bowlers than in allrounders, batsmen, or wicketkeepers. The fast bowlers sustained more muscle/tendon injuries than other players. 4
Back injuries in fast bowlers were studied in the 1980s and 1990s. Harris shows the directives on amount of bowling. The kinematics of mixed bowling techniques, which have been described by Foster et al , 6 have been implicated in disc degeneration 9, 10 and stress fractures of the pars interarticularis. 6, 7, 11 Restricting fast bowling and reducing the use of the mixed bowling technique are expected to reduce overuse back injuries.
Table 1 Directives on fast bowling from the England and Wales Cricket Board
Age (years) | Matches | Practices | Maximum of matches+practices in 1 week |
Under 13 | 2 spells of 3-4 overs | 2 per week; 30 balls/session | 3 |
Under 15 | 2 spells of 4-5 overs | 2 per week; 36 balls/session | 3 |
Under 17 | 3 spells of 4-5 overs | 3 per week; 36 balls/session | 4 |
Under 19 | 3 spells of 5-6 overs | 3 per week; 42 balls/session | 4 |
Senior | 3 spells of 6-8 overs | 3 per week; 48 balls/session |
The directives of the ECB focus only on the problem of back injury in fast bowlers. There are no published studies that relate the overall morbidity attributed to fast bowling to the amount of bowling. This information would be useful to predict the impact of the bowling restrictions imposed by the ECB.
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