Nature and incidence of upper limb injuries in professional cricket players a prospective observation.

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Introduction: Cricket is the most popular sport in India, and is gaining in importance in all south-east Asian countries. The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate the incidence, nature, and site of acute upper limb injuries sustained by professional cricketers of north India over a period of one year.

Material & methods: 95 cricket players (mean age 18.9 years) were prospectively evaluated for nature and incidence of upper limb injuries from 1st November 2008 to 31st October 2009. For the purpose of comparison the calculated injury incidence included injuries sustained during match as well as practice. Injuries were also grouped according to the type of cricket activities such as batting or fielding.

Results: Out of 95 players evaluated, 24 were bowlers, 19 were batsmen, 8 were wicket keepers and the other 44 cricketers declared themselves as all rounders. There were a total of 16 upper limb injuries in 16 (16.8%) players. The majority of injuries (10/16) occurred while fielding. Out of 16 injuries, 11 were seen in hand, 3 were observed in elbow, while 2 patients suffered from shoulder problem. Twelve were acute injuries while 4 were classified as repetitive stress injuries (RSI).

Conclusion: The incidence of upper limb injuries in cricketers at the professional and semi-professional level is significant, causing them to miss matches or practice for a significant number of days. This is the first study of Indian cricketers which documents the high incidence of upper limb injuries. The study highlights the importance of injury surveillance for Indian cricket. It is a concern which needs to be addressed by the players, coaches, teachers, administrators and medical personnel involved with cricket.