Rhodes University Human Kinetics and Ergonomics (HKE) PhD students, Lee Pote and David Goble, along with their supervisor and HOD of HKE, Dr Candice Christie attended the Cricket World Cup in Australia all in the name of research. The group was attending the 5th World Congress of Science and Medicine in Cricket which took place in Sydney from the 23 to the 27 March.
It was also a good opportunity to catch up with alumni who are making a name for themselves in the cricket arena. Darshan Weerasinghe and Greg King are both the Strength and Conditioning specialists for Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively and are both Rhodes HKE Graduates.
Rhodes University has the most productive cricket researchers in South Africa with South Africa and Australia leading the Sports Medicine/Science Research globally. There are currently 2 PhD students, 2 MSc and 1 Honours student in Dr Christie’s group.
The Rhodes University Cricket Research Group was established in 1999. As a result, Dr Christie is a member of the Research Committee for Cricket South Africa which was established three years ago. The group has been very productive in cricket research in the past few years with the NRF also actively supporting the research.
“It facilitates scientific research in the field of cricket to directly enhance performance by reducing early onset fatigue and injury risk. The research is fed directly back to Cricket South Africa (CSA) and implemented by their Medical Team,” said Dr Christie, on the role of the Research Committee for Cricket South Africa.
The Chair of the committee is Dr Gray from UCT and the members come from four different universities around South Africa – Rhodes University, the University of Pretoria, Wits and NMMU.
All the research benefits CSA directly both the national and provincial sides. It is hoped that the research will filter down to the lower levels as time goes on.
Pote is looking at developing a unique Strength and Conditioning programme for cricket players which focuses specifically on the demands of the sport. Despite being the oldest organized sport, there is virtually no research and many of the Strength and Conditioning programmes are generic and based on players and coaches experiences over time. Pote’s research will thus make a unique contribution to the preparation of players both within South Africa and abroad especially considering the increasing demands of the sport.
Goble’s research is looking specifically at the mental demands of prolonged batting, aspects such as decision making and higher cognitive processing. Once he has established these, he wishes to develop an intervention programme to provide heightened cognitive function in the light of physical fatigue which happens when batsmen are required to be at the wicket for 2-3 hours (i.e. when scoring a century). No research has looked at the cognitive aspects of batting and so this novel project will be the first of its kind.
Dr Christie was invited to speak on the Injury Statistics in South African Cricket – at all levels – at a pre-congress workshop. Each cricket playing nation who has active Sports Medicine research in cricket was represented so it was great for Rhodes to be a part of it.
She presented on data from school boy cricket, provincial and national levels. The data showed that injuries were similar across age groups and levels of play with lower extremity strains (hamstrings and quadriceps) being the most commonly injured site, as well as the lower back – particularly in fast bowlers (and with young, pre-pubescent boys being at particular risk).