Original researchInjury risk associated with ground hardness in junior cricket
Introduction
Concerns about the possible deleterious effect of hard grounds on injury risk has become widespread in Australia and elsewhere due to changes in climatic conditions and their effect on the surface characteristics of natural turf playing fields.1, 2 In many sports, increasing hard ground conditions have resulted in restricted access to those grounds and, in more extreme cases, contributed to ground closure based on perceived player safety concerns.1 However, there is a dearth of evidence on the link between injury risk and objectively measured ground hardness to inform and underpin this decision making, especially in sports other than the football codes.
Ground hardness has been associated with an increased injury risk primarily in football codes.3, 4, 5 Harder grounds have been identified as a contributing factor to increased strain on ligaments and tendons and are therefore thought to result in a higher injury risk.6, 7 While none of this evidence comes from cricket injury studies, there is biomechanical evidence that unpredictable ball bounces can occur from variations in grass cover on cricket pitches or impacts with hard ground.8, 9 It is possible, for example, that a harder ground leads to a higher vertical velocity of a cricket ball,10 which could contribute to a higher injury risk associated with impacts or misfields from faster rebounding balls.7 It has also been postulated that cricketers could be at risk of injury if they dive for balls while fielding on hard grounds.7
To date, no epidemiological studies of injuries in junior cricket have formally assessed the potential relationship with ground hardness. Studies in adult and high performance cricketers have almost exclusively focussed on injuries to fast bowlers.11, 12 Epidemiological studies in juniors, on the other hand have emphasised the occurrence of acute, traumatic injuries, as a result of contact with or misfielding of a cricket ball, and in a range of fielding positions.13, 14, 15 A recent study found that more than half of the 284 junior cricketers’ surveyed about their perception of injury risk believed there to be a high chance of injury when playing on a hard or uneven ground, even in the absence of formal evidence to support these beliefs. In contrast, only 2% of the surveyed junior players reported a high chance of injury when playing on a well covered grass field.16
A limitation of much sport ground hardness research to date is that evidence linking it to injury is primarily observational in nature, derived from statistical associations of injury rates with weather variables,4, 17, 18 rather than based on well-designed aetiological studies incorporating direct measurement of ground hardness. This has led to inconsistent findings, ranging from a reported increase in fractures on harder grounds19 to a non-significant association between hardness and injury incidence.5 There is a clear need for appropriately designed aetiological studies that incorporate objective measures of ground hardness to more confidently define the importance of ground conditions in determining sport-specific injury risk on natural turf across a range of sports, including cricket.20
The aim of this study was therefore to establish if an association exists between ground hardness and injury risk in junior community level cricket through prospective monitoring of injuries over one full playing season and objective measurement of ground hardness on a subset of fields where some matches were played. In doing so, it examined the nature, body region and mechanism of the injuries.
Section snippets
Methods
This study was part of the Juniors Enjoying Cricket Safely (JECS) prospective cohort study and the full injury surveillance and exposure methods are described in detail elsewhere.15 This nested case-series study monitored all injuries in 203 under 14 years (U14) and 120 under 16 years (U16) players during 434 matches from teams/clubs from a regional junior cricket association, in Victoria Australia, over the 2007/2008 playing season. This corresponded to over 1300 hours of accumulated match play.
Results
Over the entire playing season and all players, a total of 31 injuries was recorded corresponding to an injury rate of 3.49 injuries per 1000 match exposures (95% CI: 2.26–4.72). Of these, 2 (6.5%) were independently rated as likely to be related to ground hardness, 5 (16.1%) as possibly related and 23 (74.2%) as unlikely to be related. There was insufficient detail on one injury to accurately rate the likelihood and therefore it was classified as unknown. The nature, body region and cause of
Discussion
This is the first study to describe injuries in junior cricket in relation to ground hardness, both in terms of a subjective assessment of the link between the two and an objective measure of ground hardness on cricket fields during a playing season. The overall match injury rate was low (3.49 injuries per 1000 match exposures), which is lower than injury than that in more senior forms of the game as reported for the full cohort study.15 Of the 31 injuries, fewer than a quarter were judged as
Conclusion
To date, there has been no study published in the peer-reviewed literature linking cricket injuries specifically to ground hardness but cricket associations are still having to make decisions about ground hardness and possible closure in the absence of such evidence. This study shows that the likely risk of injury on grounds rated as having ground hardness measures above 120 g is not as high as it would be for injuries in Australian football on those same grounds. It is possible that the
Practical implications
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Objective ground hardness measures are critical for accurate interpretation of the association with injury.
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Hard grounds may not be as dangerous for junior cricket players as the players perceive them to be.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded through the Injury Prevention Community Grants Program of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Caroline Finch was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Research Fellowship (ID: 565900).
Players from the Ballarat Cricket Association, Marc Portus (Cricket Australia), John Watkin (Cricket Victoria), and Campbell Waring (Central Highlands Cricket Association) are thanked for their contributions to the project.
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