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Abstract
Cricket is one of Australia's most popular sports, both in terms of participation
rates and spectator interest. However, as with all sports, participation in cricket
can be associated with a risk of injury. Injury surveillance in Australia and
internationally has consistently identified fast bowlers as the players at the
greatest risk of injury. This clearly establishes fast bowlers as the priority group
for continued risk factor research.
The primary aim of this thesis is to describe the epidemiology of repetitive
microtrauma injuries and identify the risk factors for these injuries to male
adolescent and adult fast bowlers. The program of research consists of three
sequential prospective cohort studies, which were conducted over four cricket
seasons. The rate of injury was high in all these studies, with nearly half of the
305 bowlers sustaining an injury.
The first of the three studies, which was conducted over three seasons,
recruited 95 adult first-class fast bowlers and investigated bowling workload as
a risk factor for injury. The findings suggested that there were thresholds for
both low and high workload, beyond which the risk of injury increased. The
second study recruited 47 adolescent high performance fast bowlers for one
season, and identified a significant association between high bowling workload
and injury. Based on the results of these two studies, workload guidelines for
adult and adolescent fast bowlers are described in detail in this thesis.
The third study expanded on the first two workload studies and concurrently
investigated a range of potential injury risk factors relating to bowling workload,
physical characteristics and bowling technique. A total of 91 adult and
adolescent high performance fast bowlers participated in the third study for one
season. Two independent predictors of injury were identified: increased hip
internal rotation and reduced ankle dorsiflexion.
This program of research has provided information that is essential for the
development of evidence-based injury prevention guidelines for adolescent and
adult fast bowlers. The next stage in the injury prevention process is to
implement measures that control the exposure to the injury risk factors identified
in this thesis.