Injury Surveillance in Women's Cricket

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the injuries sustained in women's cricket to gain an understanding of the different injuries, mechanisms of injury and injury management during the summer 2013 season. A secondary aim was to discover the risk factors associated with the women's game and how they might affect injury rates. A questionnaire collecting information on the player and the injuries sustained during the summer 2013 season was piloted on a group of local club cricketers before distributing among county teams. The questionnaire was distributed via email and in person to women's county cricket teams who compete in the women's county championship. The questionnaire gathered player information; their training and playing habits; injuries they sustained; treatments and recovery of injuries; and how the injury effected performance during the summer 2013 season. Fifty-two participants completed the questionnaire. Some questionnaires were returned via email and were then printed off and stored into a secure folder; the majority were returned by hand and then stored into the secure folder. The data from the questionnaires was put into a customised Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using descriptive statistics methods and descriptive analysis was used to analyse the data. Fifty-six percent of women cricketers in this study were taking part in multiple forms of cricket (examples One-day, T20 etc) including men's cricket. Further, it was found that county level cricketers accounted for 71.2% of the injuries presented and therefore more likely to sustain an injury than other levels of cricket players. Fifty-eight percent of pace bowlers presented with injuries making them more likely to get an injury than other types of players. Shoulder injuries (28%) were more prevalent than any other area of the body, with lower back (15%) and wrist and hand (10%) being the areas presenting with next highest percentage of injuries. Seventy-five percent of bowlers who bowled between 16-30 mins and 66.7% who bowled between 31-45 mins in their training sessions presented injuries. The results show that women cricketers are more likely to sustain injuries to the shoulder than any other area of the body. Pace bowlers are more likely to become injured in comparison to other players. Acute high intensity bowling workloads could increase the risk of injury. Over exposure to all formats of cricket matches could increase the risk of injury. Future studies should look into the amount of exposure to game time that players are having; the actions of female fast bowlers and an in depth study into shoulder strength and mechanics of female cricketers to look into any influencing factors affecting the rates of shoulder injuries to further the knowledge of these areas.