Mechanism and situation of injuries in fast bowlers: A YouTube-based video analysis study

Abstract

Objectives: The present study was conducted with the objective of identifying the cause of injuries in fast bowlers. Materials and Methods: The present study is a video analysis study, keywords such as “fast bowler’s injury,” “failure of bowling,” and “cricket injuries” were searched on YouTube. Bowling action was divided into four stages – Stage 1 – jump, Stage 2 – back foot contact, Stage 3 – front foot contact, and Stage 4 – follow-through. The type and timing of injury (stage) were noted after analyzing the videos. Results: Sixteen injuries were identified in five videos. It was observed that 15 athletes had acute injury to lower limb and 1 athlete had an acute injury to lower back. 13/16 injuries happened in Stage 2 and 3/16 injuries happened in Stage 4. Conclusion: Most of the injuries happened at the time of landing and follow-through. Therefore, improvement of ground conditions, especially around the bowling area, and addition of exercise-based injury prevention programs can reduce the risk of injuries. This is more important for young fast bowlers at the club levels and state levels, as proper training at an early stage, can prevent injuries in many young fast bowlers.

Triceps injury in non-bowling arm in cricket: an unusual mechanism

“…Even though back pain is one of the most commonly reported musculoskeletal ailments,6 repetitive stress injuries are also common among fast bowlers in cricket. They are vulnerable to soft tissue injuries in the dominant/performing limb due to the complexity of the bowling action 2 7–9. A cricket bowling injury to the non-bowling arm is rare and has received little attention.…”

“…The post-match videos were gathered to observe and evaluate his bowling motion 7 10. Videos in slow motion at 120 frames/s were used to capture the aforementioned observations.…”