Moving county cricket to April makes injuries more likely

CRICKETERS are far more likely to get injured in April than they are later in the year, a study by the England and Wales Cricket Board has found as organisers face increasing backlash over the season’s schedule.

The English season is due to start on April 7 and will stretch until the end of September with the Hundred, T20 Blast and the 50-over tournament running alongside the County Championship.

Cricket fans have long complained that the 130-year-old County Championship is being marginalised, with games being played ever earlier and forced into frigid time slots in early April and late September. Scientists say the early start to the season means it is too cold outside for the players to get in proper preparation and training, leaving them vulnerable to muscle strains.

The peak times of July and August, when playing conditions are best, are increasingly dedicated to the shorter, more lucrative forms of the game.

Sports scientists at the ECB worked with the University of Bath to study the medical records of every professional male cricketer to play for the 18 firstclass counties between 2010 and 2019.

There were 236 hamstring injuries during this time, an average of 24 per season, and despite April having the second lowest number of days of cricket played, behind only September, it had by far the highest injury rate at 22.7 per 1,000 days, compared with 4.1 per 1,000 days in September and 15.8 in June and July.

The study was published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.