The Cost of School Boy Cricket in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Accompanying the glamour of the game of cricket is the musculoskeletal pain and injury. This study documented the prevalence of cricket related musculoskeletal pain among recreational adolescent male cricketers residing in the High Way area of Kwa-

Zulu Natal, South Africa (n=234). Subjects completed a self-report musculoskeletal pain questionnaire, which gathered their demographical, epidemiological and exercise history over the last 12 months. In addition the cricketers’ body mass, stature and quadriceps angles were measured. The following descriptive statistics (mode, mean, frequency, percentages) and inferential statistics (chi-square and t-tests set at a probability of 0.05) were employed to analyse the data. One hundred and eighty-eight (80.34%) cricketers of the cohort sustained musculoskeletal pain within the last 12 months (p< 0.001). The most prevalent anatomical sites that sustained cricket related musculoskeletal pain were; back (29.84%), knee (26.41%), shoulder (10.69%) and ankle (8.33%) (p<0.001). The majority of the players attributed their musculoskeletal pain to being struck with a ball (39.45%), over-use (21.08%), struck with a bat (17.68%), rapid rotational movement (11.56%) and collisions with other players (10.20%) (p<0.001). Recreational adolescent school boy cricketers residing in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa experienced a high prevalence of back, knee, shoulder and ankle musculoskeletal pain.