Batting second ups bowlers' injury risk

Fast bowlers in cricket have the highest risk of being injured but bowling first and batting second increases the odds even further, scientists said on Tuesday.

About 14 percent of fast bowlers receive injuries, compared to four percent of spin bowlers and batsmen, and two percent of wicket-keepers.

But researchers in Australia have discovered that the chances of suffering hamstring strains, groin injuries and damage to the wrists, hands and back are greater according to the batting/bowling order, although they are not sure why.

"Bowlers are more likely to be injured when undertaking big workloads and when bowling second (after batting)," said Dr John Orchard of South Sydney Medicine in New South Wales.

The scientists suspect bowlers may be more susceptible to injury when their team bowls second in a match because they warm up in the nets at the start of the first innings but in other innings they are more likely to start bowling immediately after batting.

Overall, cricket is a relatively safe sport. But after studying the type and number of injuries to Australian first class cricket teams during premier and one day international matches the researchers believe it could be made safer.

The scientists, whose research is published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, said the average injury rate for the 20 matches played in a season was 19.2 injuries for every squad of 25 players. One day internationals resulted in the highest number of injuries.

If a bowler bowled more than 20 match overs in the week before a match, he had almost double the risk of injury and bowling second after batting first raised the injury risk to 60 percent.

The fastest bowlers had the greatest risk of injury and players colliding with the boundary fence while fielding were a major cause of injury.

"The most important potentially reversible risk factor is bowler workload. The sporting activity most similar to bowling is pitching in baseball, for which workload is monitored much more closely than bowling," said Orchard.

Mail Cricket Editor