Assessment And Comparison of Agility in Cricketers Depending on Their Playing Position - An Observational Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Cricket is a widely played sport and has been evolved over the years. Agility being the key component of cricket is a collective coordinative ability that includes speed, balance and coordination and plays an important role in determining a player’s performance. The agility of players differs on the basis of their anthropometric measurements, position, training period and type of innings played. Improved agility enhances neuromuscular coordination thereby reducing the risk of injuries to the players. Cricketers require different types of agility training to meet their role in a match. Limited literature is available evaluating agility of cricket players. Hence, a need arises to conduct this study. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the agility of players depending on their positions. Objective: To evaluate and compare the agility of cricket players depending on their playing position using Agility T-test. Method: Institutional ethical clearance and consent from the players were sought. An observational pilot study was conducted on 30 players and were divided into 3 groups- batsmen, bowler and wicketkeepers Agility-T test was used to measure agility. Data was analysed using the software Graph Pad Prism, normality of the data was calculated using the Shapiro Wilk Test and comparison between the groups was done using One way ANOVA test. Results: The agility differed significantly (p value<0.05). From the study it was revealed that the agility timing scores of cricket players varied according to their position. Batsmen recorded the lowest time followed by wicketkeeper whereas bowlers recorded the highest timings. Conclusions: A significant difference was found in the 3 groups of cricketers. Differences in current finding will help in formulating a structured agility training protocol depending on cricketers’ position. Keywords: [cricketers, cricket, agility, playing position, Agility T-test].