Epidemiology of Sports-related Musculoskeletal Injuries Common in Men’s Domestic Cricket: An Analytical Cross-sectional Study Based on Sports Fields

Abstract                                            Background: Despite gaining the popularity of cricket in Bangladesh, besides raising the competition frequency causes more injury to the athletes. Even after that, they have yet to develop an injury incidence surveillance system. Objective: To determine the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries and related risk factors that elite domestic cricketer sustains during the game. Design and setting: Cross-sectional study conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 198 cricketers, purposively adopted for an interview, 15-35 years of age, played at least three sessions for the divisional clubs. Participants required to complete a self-reported questionnaire probing the incidence of injury and risk factors (p≤0.05). Binary regression analysis performed to investigate the correlation of strain injury with other characteristics. Results: Participants has the highest sustained 42.4% strain injury. Risk factors for strain injury reported a rate of 50.3 (95% CI. 0.060–4.207) in match play. There were no significant differences in strain incidence based on the match, protective equipment, and batting, but ruled out the batsman (r2. 0.053, OR. 0.376, 95% CI. 0.183– 0.770). Upper extremity (r2. 0.075, OR. 6.428, 95% CI. 1.483– 27.861) and hard ground (r2. 0.716, OR. 0.005, 95% CI. 0.001 – 0.022) identified as the major risk factors, and the PRICE protocol proved to be the best physical therapy method to remain in the game.  Conclusion: In matches, the batsman is most likely to sustain a strain injury mostly to the upper limb. There is enough evidence to conclude that the injury monitoring system plays a big role and is much needed in cricket. Keywords: Strain, Epidemiological Monitoring, Cricket Sport, Physiotherapy, Cross-sectional Study