Pelvic and trunk mechanics and injury in cricket: A spin bowling case study

An international cricket spin bowler was experiencing asymmetrical low back pain while bowling his off-break delivery. The aim of this study was to identify technical discrepancies between the bowler's off-break delivery and his other variations, which did not cause low back pain. The bowler underwent a three-dimensional kinematic bowling analysis based on data captured using a 14-camera Vicon system operating at 250 images per second. To increase task representativeness, the analysis was undertaken outdoors on a turf cricket pitch. The bowler was required to bowl six deliveries of his off-break delivery and three variations. A range of pelvic and trunk kinematics were measured. A one-way independent samples analysis of variance with planned comparisons and a bootstrapping procedure was used to identify technical differences between the delivery types. Results showed that the off-break delivery displayed significantly higher trunk alignment, shoulder counter-rotation, trunk contralateral flexion and crunch factor' when compared with other delivery variations. It was concluded that the bowler who participated in this study was using an off-break technique that exhibited technical characteristics that have previously been associated with an increased likelihood of sustaining a lower back injury.