Cricket Injuries
Cricketers are expected to train longer, harder, and earlier in life to excel in their chosen sport. The repetitive nature of the game and the need often to be out on the field of play for long periods further predispose cricketers to a wide range of injuries. Injury can occur during any phase of the game such as bowling, batting, or fielding, and can involve any part of the body.
Direct Impact Injuries
Direct blow injuries occur when a player is struck by the ball, collides with another player, or crashes into the boundary fence. For example, bowlers and fielders can be exposed to balls of very high speed and are at risk from a misjudgement of the ball or unanticipated bounce. Any misjudgement in determining the line and length of the ball, whether to move forwards or backwards, whether to play a stroke and which stroke to play, creates a visual inadequacy which could cause the ball to ricochet off the bat’s edge or the batsman to miss the ball completely, either of which might end up with the cricket ball colliding with a body.
The batsman’s feet are vulnerable to being struck by a ball and lightweight batting shoes offer little protection against such impact. Wicket-keepers can experience great trauma, especially on the receiving end of a fast delivery. Fielders are susceptible both to direct blows from the ball and running and sliding into the boundary fence.
Even though batsmen and close-in fielders wear protective equipment, reports of head and eye injuries are common. Other impact injuries include fractures of the arm, hands and toes, and soft-tissue injuries to the upper arm and thigh, thorax, abdomen and testicles. Splenic rupture is also possible because of a blow from a cricket ball or collision with the boundary fence. There was also a report of fatal cardiac arrest after a player was hit in the chest by a cricket ball.
Indirect Injuries
Indirect injuries are muscle, ligament and tendon damage sustained while attempting to perform a specific activity. These injuries are most prevalent at the start of a season and in players who pay less attention to warming up and their general level of fitness.
Overuse Injuries
Overuse can produce a range of injuries secondary to running – injury to lower limb, throwing – injury to shoulder and elbow, and bowling – injury to lower back. But the most common overuse injury is associated with fast bowling. The fast bowler is more prone to bony abnormalities (eg spondylolytic incidences, spondylolisthesis, spondylolysis, pedicle sclerosis and pars defect), disc degeneration, stress fracture at various sites, primarily in the metatarsal bones, fibula and tibia, muscle and other tissue tears, and pain.
The other overuse injury is splitting or wearing of the finger skin as spin bowlers repeatedly drag their skin across the seam of the ball to impart spin. The end or middle finger joints are often traumatised repeatedly by the bowling action, and sometimes the consequent osteoarthritic changes can be severe enough to end a bowler’s playing career.
A wicket-keeper may also experience osteoarthritic changes in the knees because of the action of repeated squatting, and in the joints of the hand, from repeatedly catching the ball.
Other overuse injuries are related to throwing, catching or running, resulting in instability, impingement syndrome, degenerative changes in the rotator cuff, and tendinitis in the biceps or a tear of the supraspinatus tendon. Running long distances during matches predisposes the player to stress fractures, shin pain, patellar tendinitis and muscle tears.
Source: Sports Injury Bulletin