Injury Patterns of South African Provincial Cricket Players over Two Seasons (Original RESEARCH Article) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Long-term injury surveillance has been carried out in Australia, South Africa and England to identify injury patterns. Retrospective injury information was obtained from 54 cricketers who had played for the same county first team in England between 1985 and 1995, with 990 injuries indicating an injury exposure of 17 247 days played and an injury incidence rate of 57/1 000 days played. (1) Most injuries were sustained early in the season. Bowlers were most susceptible to injury (70/1 000 days), followed by all-rounders, batsmen and wicket-keepers with 55, 49 and 47 injuries per 1 000 days, respectively. Most injuries occurred to the lower limbs (45%), with muscle/tendon strains, contusions/haematomas, and ligament/joint sprains being he most common. The most vulnerable sites for injury were the thigh and calf (25%), fingers (14%) and lumbar spine (11%).