Movement Demands of an Elite Cricket Team During the Big Bash League in Australia
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©Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2020) 19, 59-64 http://www.jssm.org ` Research article Movement Demands of an Elite Cricket Team During the Big Bash League in Australia Robert Sholto-Douglas 1, Ryan Cook 2, Matthew Wilkie 3 and Candice Jo-Anne Christie 1 1 Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa; 2 Gary Kirsten Cricket, Cape Town, South Africa; 3 Cricket Tasmania, Hobart, Australia and with the margin for error being so small, there is a large Abstract amount of scrutiny placed on the execution of appropriate There is a lack of research on the movement patterns within skills (Irvine and Kennedy, 2017). Winning T20 sides take Twenty20 (T20) cricket, thus the purpose of this study was to in- more wickets in the first and last six overs of an innings vestigate the movement demands placed on elite T20 cricket play- (Petersen et al., 2009), and so one or two overs can have a ers playing in The Big Bash League, in Australia, in the significant impact on the outcome of the match (Irvine and 2017/2018 season. Player positional movements were determined Kennedy, 2017). from the time motion data obtained from a portable 10 Hz global The T20 format is arguably the most physically de- positioning (GPS) unit. Overall, all the players covered between manding of all the formats and requires players to execute 1.77km and 6.54km in a time ranging between 40.4 minutes and precision skill, under high levels of fatigue (Petersen et al., 96.5 minutes. Fast bowlers covered a mean distance of 6.5 (±0.5) km, batsmen 1.7 (±1.2) km and fielders 5.9 (±0.9) km. This is the 2009). Physical fitness impacts on the ability to execute the first study that has looked at the movement demands of players in required skills to carry out a particular game strategy, par- The Big Bash League and found that bowlers have the highest ticularly when fatigued (Petersen et al., 2009). T20 has movement demands followed by fielding. With that, arguably, changed certain physical requirements for players (Robert more attention needs to be devoted to bowling and particularly et al., 2014) and requires 50-100% more maximal sprints fielding which is often not prioritized. However, overall demands per hour for all players when compared to multi-day of T20 cricketers have decreased. Cricketers and coaches need to matches (Petersen, 2010). ensure that they adapt training to ensure that their players are phy- Sprints in cricket are often revolved around crucial sically prepared for the associated demands. match situations, such as running between wickets, a bow- ler’s run-up, or sprinting to field the ball (Robert et al., Key words: Twenty20, GPS, fast bowling, batting, fielding. 2014). A minimum of five players have to bowl in a T20, although more players can bowl if need be, making up just Introduction under half the team. All eleven players are tasked with bat- ting, if required, however, the specialist batsmen are tasked Whilst cricket is one of the oldest organised sports, there with scoring the majority of the runs. All players must field has been little research done on the physical demands of and complete maximal sprints when fielding (Robert et al., the game (Christie, 2008; Woolmer and Noakes, 2008; 2014). In addition to superior physical fitness being a re- MacDonald et al., 2013; Noakes and Durandt, 2000). Of quirement of the game, strategies and tactics in all formats the studies that have been done, most have used simulation of the game, have not been looked at in scientific literature protocols (Christie, 2008; Perera and Swartz, 2013; Pote, (Petersen, 2010). 2016) which have been criticised by some, questioning With the increased knowledge of the positional their applicability to ‘real world’ cricket (Petersen, 2010). game requirements of T20 cricketers, an understanding of Notwithstanding these debates, it is now understood that this will allow conditioning coaches to design more effec- there are increased physical demands placed on cricketers tive, and individualised training programs (Petersen et al., which provides a further need for cricketers to be in peak 2009). Petersen et al (2009) found that, fast bowlers un- physical condition at all times (Christie, 2008). The best dergo the greatest workload at the highest intensities, and physically prepared players will perform better, more con- have 13 seconds less recovery time between high intensity sistently, have less injuries, and will have a longer and efforts, as opposed to fielders. To account for this, it would more successful career (Woolmer and Noakes, 2008). be optimal for fast bowlers to seek fielding placements Twenty20 (T20) cricket is the latest version of the where they can enhance recovery between high intensity game, (Perera and Swart, 2013), and only one publication efforts, and limit the potential of fielding tasks, which im- has quantified the positional movements in a study, which pact on their bowling performance (Petersen et al., 2009). was delimited to state level players, and was done over 10 Petersen et al (2009) found that fast bowlers spent most of years ago. One of the more modern T20 competitions is their time walking and their least amount of time running The Big Bash League (BBL), which was established in in the T20 format (Table 1). 2011 by Cricket Australia, and which is the focus of this The same has also been found with fast bowlers in research. the One Day International (ODI) format (Webster and The rules in T20 are effective in speeding up the Travill, 2018), and across all three formats, including T20, game and with less time comes a greater chance of error, ODI and Multi-day (Petersen at al., 2010). In contrast, spin Received: 16 July 2019 / Accepted: 26 November 2019 / Published (online): 01 March 2020 60 Movement demands of elite cricketers bowlers are able to commence their bowling with twice the being used by cricket conditioning coaches as a recovery time from high intensity efforts (Petersen et al., means to adapt the training of individuals. The use of this 2009). Fielders spend most of their time walking and the data is in direct relation to the measurement of both dis- least amount of their time running (Table 1) during a T20 tances covered, and the different intensities of efforts used game (Petersen et al., 2009). The ODI format has shown by individual players (Petersen et al., 2009). similar for fielders in terms of walking, but their least The purpose of this study was to investigate the amount of time is spent striding and sprinting (Webster and movement demands placed on elite T20 cricket players Travill, 2018). Further, for fielders, they spend their least playing in the Big Bash League 2017/2018. amount sprinting in all three formats (Petersen et al., 2010). Wicket-keepers spend most of their time walking, Methods and their least time sprinting (Table 1) in T20, which is the same for those playing in ODIs (Webster and Travill, 2018; This study was a retrospective cohort study, with the meth- Petersen et al., 2010) and multi day formats (Petersen et al., ods adapted from Petersen et al (2009). 2010). Participants Table 1. Petersen et al. (2009) percentage (%) of time spent at The sample was a sample of convenience and included different speeds. seven male cricketers who were part of the same team play- Fast Wicket- Fielding Batting ing in the Big Bash League in Australia during the Bowling Keeping 2017/2018 season. The twelve games were analysed which Walking 51 54 68 73 made up the competition. Jogging 26 25 16 20 Running 7 6 3 3 Striding 9 8 6 3 Ethical considerations Sprinting 9 7 7 1 Prior to the study, ethical approval was obtained by the De- partment of Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, Graham- Batting in T20, requires more high intensity efforts stown, South Africa Ethical Standards Committee (HKE- than other formats of the game (Petersen et al., 2009). This 2018-23). All players gave their written and informed con- results in higher levels of biomechanical and/or neuromus- sent, to obtain their data retrospectively. Permission was cular fatigue (Houghton et al., 2011). Batting, in this for- also granted by the team coaching staff and Cricket Aus- mat, requires more frequent changes of direction when run- tralia. ning between the wickets, as batters tend to run more fre- quently between the wickets, at a very fast pace, in order to Measurements and Quantification of Movement gain extra runs where possible and to optimize the batting Demands team’s score (Houghton et al., 2011). It is therefore inter- Player positional movements were determined from the esting that even in the T20 format, batsmen spend most of time motion data was obtained from a portable 10 Hz their time walking and less of their time running (Table 1) global positioning (GPS) unit (Catapult, Melbourne, Aus- which is the same across all formats (Webster and Travill, tralia), during all of the teams Big Bash games in the 2018; Petersen et al., 2010). Since Petersen and colleagues 2017/2018 season. Each player, while in competition, had (2009) work over 10 years ago, there have been no further a GPS unit positioned via an elasticised shoulder harness, published studies looking at these demands in T20 cricket. between the scapulae, at the base of the cervical spine. Var- It is clear that there has been a lack of research of ious movements were selected by the coaching staff and movement patterns (inter-player total distance covered, were quantified including: total distance (m), distance trav- -1 number of sprints, and the mean sprint distance) of differ- elled walking (movement speed 0-3.1 mꞏs ), jogging (3.1- -1 -1 -1 ent positions in T20 cricket (Petersen et al., 2009), which 3.9 mꞏs ), running (3.9-5.8 mꞏs ), striding (5.8-7.2 mꞏs ) -1 is something that needs to be investigated further.