Relationships between speed, change of direction and jump performance with cricket specific speed tests in male academy cricketers

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between general speed and change of direction speed and‘cricket specific’ speed tests and the relationships between jump performance and speed and change of direction ability in male academy cricketers. Design and Methods: Sixteen academy male cricketers (age: 17 ± 0.7 years; height: 176.9 ± 6.2 cm; mass: 72.2 ± 13.2 kg) performed tests of 20 m sprint, 505 change of direction (COD) on both left and right legs, “quick single” with bat (WB) (17.68m), running-a-two WB, running-a-three WB, countermovement jump (CMJ), and drop jump (DJ). Results: Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC’s) revealed high within-session reliability for all tests (ICC ≥ 0.92; p ≤ 0.001),except 0-5 m (ICC = 0.642; p ≤ 0.001) and 0-10 m (ICC = 0.708; p ≤ 0.001) tests. General speed tests showed strong relationships to ‘cricket specific’ speed tests (20 m sprint - running-a-two; r = 0.951; p ≤ 0.01; 20 m sprint - running-a-three; r = 0.937; p ≤ 0.01; ‘quick single’; r = 0.951; p ≤ 0.01). Strong relationships were also observed between the 505 right foot COD times and all cricket specific tests (r = 0.909- 0.934; p ≤ 0.01). CMJ height showed the strongest correlations with: 20 m (r = -0.668;p ≤ 0.01); 505 left (r = -0.789; p ≤ 0.01); 505 right (r = -0.807; p ≤ 0.01); “quick single” WB (r = -0.739; p ≤ 0.01); running-a two WB (r = -0.742; p ≤ 0.01); running-a-three (WB) (r = -0.733; p ≤ 0.01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that general speed and COD tests are highly appropriate to assess cricket specific qualities in youth cricketers.