Injury and Player Availability in Women’s International Pathway Cricket from 2015 to 2019

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This prospective cohort study aimed to describe injury and illness epidemiology within women’s international pathway cricket, understanding what influences player availability in this unique context where players are contracted part-time. Approximately 8.4% of players were impacted by injury or illness during the year, with an average 2.3% of players completely unavailable on any given day. Most medical complaints occurred during training (111.2 injuries/100 players per year). Of all complaints, medical illness had the highest overall incidence (45.0 complaints/100 players), followed by hand injuries (24.7 injuries/100 players). Gradual onset injuries were most common. Overall average match time-loss complaint prevalence rate was 4.1% and average match time-loss injury incidence rate was 7.0 injuries/1000 days of play. Fielding (56.4 injuries/100 players per year) was the activity resulting in the highest average overall and time-loss injury incidence rates, though ‘other’ activities (e. g. those occurring outside of cricket participation) collectively accounted for 78.3 injuries/100 players per year. The high incidence of medical illness relative to other complaints may be a distinct feature of the women’s cricket international pathway compared to other cricket samples. The high occurrence of injuries arising from ‘other’ activities, likely due to part-time participation, presents an opportunity for targeted injury prevention strategies.</jats:p><jats:p> Practical Implications </jats:p>

Prevalence and incidence of injuries among female cricket players: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Mean annual injury incidence of England pathway cricketers was 182.5 injuries per 100 players per year 28 . Mean annual incidence of self-reported worst injury in Australian elite and recreational cricket players was 798.6 injuries per 1000 participants 30 .…”

“…Data for two studies were collected during international tournaments 8,39 . Data for four studies were collected during one or multiple seasons of cricket 2,3,7,28 . Out of the 23 included studies, six were thesis/dissertations (gray literature) 3,7,30,31,39,43…”

“…The three studies 2,8,28 included in meta-analysis 1 (Table 11) received high critical appraisal scores, indicating a low risk of bias. The pooled estimate overall injury IR was 71.9 (SE 21.3, 95% CI 30.2–113.6, P < 0.01) injuries per 1000 player hours (meta-analysis 1a; Figure 4).…”

“…The mean score of the 15 injury prevalence studies was 7 (out of a possible 9). Furthermore, two studies 2,29 achieved a maximum score of 8/8 and four studies 28,30,35,39 achieved a maximum score of 9/9 in the JBI critical appraisal checklist for prevalence studies. The mean score of the four studies appraised as cohort studies was 8 (out of possible 11), with two studies 8,36 achieving the maximum score in the JBI critical appraisal checklist for cohort studies.…”

Detecting Injury Risk Factors with Algorithmic Models in Elite Women’s Pathway Cricket

“…This insight may help practitioners prioritize risk factors in this setting. The importance placed on lower extremity factors perhaps reflects the consistently high incidence of thigh injuries in cricket injury surveillance research [26][27][28]. The broad jump test assesses lower limb explosive power [29] and may be a useful practical measure for practitioners in this context.…”