Cricket Match Research Articles

A probabilistic approach to identifying run scoring advantage in the order of playing cricket

In the game of cricket, the decision to bat first after winning the toss is often taken to make the best use of superior pitch conditions and set a big target for the opponent. However, the opponent may fail to show their natural batting performance in the second innings due to several factors, including deteriorated pitch conditions and excessive pressure of chasing a high target score. The advantage of batting first has been highlighted in the literature and expert opinions. However, the effect of batting and bowling order on match outcome has not been investigated well enough to recommend an adjustment of potential bias. This study proposes a probability-based model to study venue-specific scoring and chasing characteristics of teams with different match outcomes. A total of 1117 one-day international cricket matches held in ten popular venues are analyzed to show substantially high scoring likelihood when the winning team bat in the first innings. In a high scoring match, results suggest that the same bat-first winning team is very unlikely to score or chase the same high score if they bat in the second innings. We use the Bayesian rule to identify the bias in the scoring likelihood due to the playing order (bat-first versus bat-second). The bias is adjusted by revising the second innings target in a way that equalizes winning and run scoring likelihoods of both teams. The data and source code have been shared publicly for future research in creating competitive match outcomes by eliminating the advantage of batting order in run scoring.

Bradley-Terry Model for Assessing the Performance of Ten Odi Cricket Teams Adjusting for Home Ground Effect

The analysis of sports data, especially cricket is an interesting field for the statisticians. Every year, a large number of cricket tournaments take place among the cricket playing nations. It is of interest to study their performance when they play with each other in a one-day international (ODI) match or a test match. In this study, we assess the performance of top ten cricket teams in the ODI cricket match and make a comparison among them. The abilities of teams change over time. As a result, not a single team dominates the game over a long period. Therefore, a paired comparison method is more reliable and appropriate to compare more than two teams at the same time based on the outcomes of the matches they play. Arguably, a team’s performance also depends on whether they play at home or away. In this study, we consider Bradley-Terry model, a widely accepted model for pairwise comparison. In that, we consider home and away effect to demonstrate how the home advantages differ among these teams.

The Potential for Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Sport: A Cricket Case Study.

A review of risk factors affecting airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was synthesised into an 'easy-to-apply' visual framework. Using this framework, video footage from two cricket matches were visually analysed, one pre-COVID-19 pandemic and one 'COVID-19 aware' game in early 2020. The number of opportunities for one participant to be exposed to biological secretions belonging to another participant was recorded as an exposure, as was the estimated severity of exposure as defined from literature. Events were rated based upon distance between subjects, relative orientation of the subjects, droplet generating activity performed (e. g., talking) and event duration. In analysis we reviewed each risk category independently and the compound effect of an exposure i. e., the product of the scores across all categories. With the application of generic, non-cricket specific, social distancing recommendations and general COVID-19 awareness, the number of exposures per 100 balls was reduced by 70%. More impressive was the decrease in the most severe compound ratings (those with two or more categories scored with the highest severity) which was 98% and the reduction in exposures with a proximity <1 m, 96%. Analysis of the factors effecting transmission risk indicated that cricket was likely to present a low risk, although this conclusion was somewhat arbitrary omitting a comparison with a non-cricketing activity.

The green glaucoma cricket championship: An innovative glaucoma titled based cricket match initiative for screening and promoting awareness on glaucoma disease process and compliance

World glaucoma week is celebrated annually in the 2nd week of March, to raise awareness on glaucoma. In the light of the existing manpower and resource constraints, we propose this novel concept of glaucoma awareness, through the green glaucoma cricket championship. The overarching goal of this cricket championship was to screen the general public attending the event with noncontact tonometry, confocal fundus scanner and portable virtual reality perimetry; and refer suspicious patients to the base hospital. Every single protocol of this cricket match was specifically designed with a glaucomatous nomenclature, so that the public gathering, can be educated with those terminologies at various phases of the match. Two hundred and twenty people visited during the 3 h awareness cricket match. A total of 154 people above the age of 40 years were screened for glaucoma, of which 15 (9.7%) were found to be glaucoma suspects, and were referred to the base hospital. Ten out of 15 (66.6%) glaucoma suspects presented to the hospital during the glaucoma awareness week 2020, of which 4 (40%) were confirmed to have glaucoma. This manuscript highlights the promotion of awareness and knowledge toward glaucoma, to the general public through cricket, because in India cricket is like religion and Indian's love for the sport is unparalleled.

Concussion in cricket: Clinical findings using Sport Concussion Assessment Tool and recovery timeframes

Objectives To retrospectively review data of concussed and non-concussed elite cricket athletes following head impact to describe which clinical features on the day of injury are associated with concussion diagnosis. A secondary aim was to describe the recovery time of concussed athletes. Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods This study reviewed five seasons of Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) data and clinical records for elite male and female cricket athletes who sustained a head impact during a cricket match or training. Results Data from 30 concussed and 37 non-concussed athletes were compared. Symptoms of ‘don’t feel right’ and ‘feeling slowed down’ had the strongest clinical utility for a concussion diagnosis post head impact. Concussed athletes reported a significantly lower ‘percent of normal’ (median 60%, IQR 60–90%) compared to athletes who sustained a non-concussive head impact (median 99%, IQR 95–100%, p = 0.003). No other component of the SCAT distinguished concussed from non-concussed athletes on day of injury. Concussed athletes typically experienced symptom resolution within 2–8 days and completed a graded return to play protocol within 4–14 days. No differences in SCAT findings or recovery times were observed between genders. Conclusion The SCAT may be used as a clinical tool to assist in diagnosis of concussionin elite cricket athletes. The components of the SCAT with the greatest clinical utility on day of injury were athlete-reported symptoms and ‘percent of normal’. Concussed cricket athletes typically complete their graded return to play protocol within 14 days however individualised management is paramount.

Indian Premier League Using Different Aspects of Machine Learning Algorithms

The purpose of the present article is to highlight the outcomes of Indian premier league cricket match utilizing a managed taking in come nearer from a team-based point of view. The methodology consists of prescriptive and descriptive models. Descriptive model focuses mainly on two aspects they are, it describes data and statistics of the previous information. i.e., batting, balling or allrounder and It predicts past matches of IPL. Predictive model predicts ranking and winning percentage of the team. The two models show the measurements of winning level of the group Winner that the user has selected. This paper predicts the result through which technique match has highest result. The dataset consists of two groups that is the toss outcome, venue date, which tells about of the counterpart for all matches. Since the nature impact can't be expected in the game, 109 matches which were either finished by downpour or draw/tie, have been taken out from the dataset. The dataset is partitioned into two sections to be specific the test information and the train information.The readiness dataset contains the 70% of the information from our dataset and the test dataset contains 30% of the information from our dataset. There were all out of 3500 coordinates in getting ready dataset and 1500 matches. This paper has been researched earlier by different scholars like Pathak and Wadwa, Munir etl ,and many other scholars. This viewpoint discusses the application of INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE Matches held in different states. Gives the score of batsman and bowler with the help of machine learning techniques. Focuses on predicted analysis which is predicted by applying with various AI strategies to the real outcome actual result and gives the percentage of predicted result.

Analysing Long Short Term Memory Models for Cricket Match Outcome Prediction

As the technology advances, an ample amount of data is collected in sports with the help of advanced sensors. Sports Analytics is the study of this data to provide a constructive advantage to the team and its players. The game of international cricket is popular all across the globe. Recently, various machine learning techniques have been used to analyse the cricket match data and predict the match outcome as win or lose. Generally these models make use of the overall match level statistics such as teams, venue, average run rate, win margin, etc to predict the match results before the beginning of the match. However, very few works provide insights based on the ball-by-ball level statistics. Here we propose a novel Recurrent Neural Network model which can predict the win probability of a match at regular intervals given the ball-by-ball statistics. The Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Model takes as input the ball wise features as well as the match level details available from the training dataset. It gives a prediction of winning the match at any time stamp during the match. This level of insight will help the team to predict the probability of them winning the match after every ball and help them determine the critical in-game changes they should make in their game strategies.

Variability and physical demands of international seam bowlers in one-day and Twenty20 international matches across five years

ObjectivesTo quantify and compare the match demands and variability of international One-Day (ODI) with Twenty20 (T20) cricket matches and to compare ODI match demands when competing home and away. DesignSingle cohort, longitudinal observation. MethodsThirteen international male seam bowlers across 204matches (ODI=160; T20=44) were investigated over five-years (2015−2019). Using global positioning sensors and accelerometers, physical demands were quantified using distance covered at different velocities and the number of entries into high and low intensity acceleration and deceleration bands. Variability was quantified using coefficient of variation (CV) and smallest worthwhile change. ResultsSignificantly greater (p<0.05) match demands were found for all physical variables relative to minutes played for T20 against ODI matches, except for distance covered 20−25kmh−1 which was greater for ODI. Distance covered between 0−7km∙h−1 showed no significance difference (p=0.60). The number of moderate decelerations (2−4m∙s2) were greater (p=0.04) away compared to home in ODI. All other variables showed no significance. Relative to minutes played, decelerations ≤4m∙s2 (within-player ODI CV=75.5%. T20=72.0%) accelerations >4m∙s2 (within-player ODI CV=79.2%. T20 CV=77.2%. Between-player ODI CV=84.7%. T20=38.8%) and distance covered >25kmh−1 (within-player ODI CV=65.5%. T20=64.1%) showed the greatest variability. ConclusionsPlayers are exposed to different physical demands in ODI Vs T20 matches, but not for home Vs away ODI matches. Practitioners should be aware of the large variability in high-speed/intensity accelerations and decelerations across matches.

Prediction of IPL matches using Machine Learning while tackling ambiguity in results

Background/Objectives: The IPL (Indian Premier League) is one of the most viewed cricket matches in the world. With a perpetual increase in the popularity and advertising associated with it, forecasting the IPL matches is becoming a need for the advertisers and the sponsors. This paper is centered on the implementation of machine learning to foretell the winner of an IPL match. Methods/Statistical analysis: The cricket in the T-20 format is highly unpredictable - many features contribute to the result of a cricket match, and each attribute feature has a weighted impact on the outcome of a game. In this paper, first, a meaningful dataset through data mining was defined; next, essential features using various methods like feature engineering and Analytic Hierarchy Process were derived. Besides, a key issue on data symmetry and the inability of models to handle it was identified, which extends to all types of classification models that compare two or more classes using similar features for both the classes. This concept in the paper is termed as model ambiguity that occurs due to the model’s asymmetric nature. Alongside, different machine learning classification algorithms like Naive Bayes, SVM, k- Nearest Neighbor, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, ExtraTreesClassifier, XGBoost were adopted to train the models for predicting the winner. Findings: As per the investigation, tree-based classifiers provided better results with the derived model. The highest accuracy of 60.043% with Random Forest, with a standard deviation of 6.3% and an ambiguity of 1.4%, was observed. Novelty/Applications: Apart from reporting a more accurate result, the derived model has also solved the problem of multicollinearity and identified the issue of data symmetry (termed as model ambiguity). It can be leveraged by brands, sponsors, and advertisers to keep up their marketing strategies. Keywords: The Indian Premier League; machine learning; analytic hierarchy process; winner prediction; IPL

Ranking of Pakistan’s One-Day International Cricket Players Based on Link Fusion

Cricket is one of the most popular game in the world. This game has been played between two teams; every team has 11 players. Every cricket team in the world belongs to a country having a cricket board that selects the best players and manage the team activities. Cricket matches are of three forms One-Day International (ODI) cricket matches, First class or Test Matches and T-20 matches. The main issue in this game is to selects the best suitable players for the team and ranks them according to their performance. We mainly focus on Pakistan's One-day International ODI cricket players ranking. We proposed a method that consist of statistical formulas apply to the significant features of current players in Pakistan's One-Day International ODI cricket and rank them according to the rank score calculated by our method. For the implementation, we make application named TeamMaker that automatically scarp the information, and after applying our algorithm display, the results in the form of ranking tables. Similarly, ranking tables also available on the International Cricket Council ICC website, and too many researchers rank the cricket players of all teams in the world with different algorithms. Still, these methods are universal and not for a specific country. Our methodology based on link fusion that focuses on single country Pakistan with 27 One-Day International (ODI) cricket players that are currently available for the team. This application selects the exclusive features that are affected by their performance. TeamMaker application displays a ranking table based on these features. In the end, we compare and analyze the players ranking results of our methodology with the players ranking of International Cricket Council ICC. Our findings show that previous universal ranking methods neglect many countries and other prominent features of players, that's why many cricket player does not present in ranking tables.

When in doubt, it’s not out: Match format is associated with differences in elite-level cricket umpires’ leg-before-wicket decisions

ObjectivesContextual factors can influence the way sports officials apply unambiguous rules. The aim of this study was to better understand the leg-before-wicket (LBW) decision-making behaviour of elite cricket umpires and determine whether their behaviour changes according to the format of the game in which they are adjudicating. MethodsLBW decisions (n = 5578) from actual elite level cricket matches in Australia between 2009 and 2016 were analysed using a signal detection paradigm. Umpire sensitivity (A) and response bias (B) were compared to chance performance in three formats of the game: Four-day, One-day, and T20. Mixed effects models assessed sensitivity and response bias differences between match types. ResultsUmpires were able to differentiate between “out” and “not out” appeals to a high standard but were conservative and had a bias to respond “not out” in all formats of the game. Umpires were less accurate in the shorter formats of the game, particularly T20 cricket and were also significantly more conservative in T20 compared to Four-day Matches. ConclusionsCricket umpires are conservative and are highly accurate LBW decision makers. However, differences in their judgments were associated with different match formats. The unique task goals and contextual pressures afforded by the shorter formats of the game, particularly T20, may account for the observed performance differences we see here.

THE ROLE OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS ON THE BATTING PERFORMANCE OF CRICKET BATSMEN – A REVIEW STUDY

Background: The batting performance is assessed by considering the batting average and strike rate of a batsman. With the induction of T-20 cricket matches, the strike rate of a batsman has gained much attention from coaches and team management. To increase the strike rate a batsman required to hit powerful shots for boundaries, which assist in making maximum scores at the minimum ball. Therefore, this investigation was planned to determine the effect of body size on the batting performance of cricket batsman.Methods: the literature for this study was selected for cricket coaching manual, cricket books, cricket batting videos, a biography of cricket batsmen, research articles. The academic documents were downloaded and shortlisted from Google Scholar, Research Gate, EBSCO, and ProQuest from 1990 to 2019.Results: The synthesized literature review concludes, stature, longer legs, longer arms, and lean body mass of a batsman show positive effects on the execution of powerful shots in cricket. Furthermore, the maximum strength of muscles assists a batsman to boost up the initial velocity of bat swing to accomplish the ball speed for a successful and powerful shot.Conclusions: Although stature and longer limbs of batsmen are associated with batting performance. On the other hand, the specific training would also enhance the capacity of cricket batsman for powerful shots in cricket. A future study was proposed to investigate the effect of training on the batting performance.

Heuristics for Winner Prediction in International Cricket Matches

Cricket is popularly known as the game of gentlemen. The game of cricket has been introduced to the World by England. Since the introduction till date, it has become the second most ever popular game. In this context, few a data mining and analytical techniques have been proposed for the same. In this work, two different scenario have been considered for the prediction of winning team based on several parameters. These scenario are taken for two different standard formats for the game namely, one day international (ODI) cricket and twenty-twenty cricket (T-20). The prediction approaches differ from each other based on the types of parameters considered and the corresponding functional strategies. The strategies proposed here adopts two different approaches. One approach is for the winner prediction for one-day matches and the other is for predicting the winner for a T-20 match. The approaches have been proposed separately for both the versions of the game pertaining to the intra-variability in the strategies adopted by a team and individuals for each. The proposed strategies for each of the two scenarios have been individually evaluated against existing benchmark works, and for each of the cases the duo of approaches have outperformed the rest in terms of the prediction accuracy. The novel heuristics proposed herewith reflects efficiency and accuracy with respect to prediction of cricket data.

Automation of Cricket Scoreboard by Recognizing Umpire Gestures

Imagine how tiresome it is for the scorers to update the scoreboard after each ball delivery during a cricket match. They need to be alert during any point in the match, watch every single ball, record ball by ball events, modify the score and coordinate with the umpire the entire time. A system that can update the scoreboard automatically after every ball will lessen their effort by half; the time taken for the updation and the chances of errors will also be reduced. A novel method for umpire pose detection for updating the cricket scoreboard during real-time cricket matches is suggested in this work. The proposed system identifies the events happening in the pitch by recognizing the gestures of the umpire and then updates the scoreboard accordingly. The concept of transfer learning is used to accelerate the training of neural network for feature extraction. The Inception V3 network pretrained on the visual database ImageNet is culled as the primary prospect for feature extraction. Instead of initializing the model with random weights, initializing it with the pretrained weights reduces the training time and hence is more efficient. The proposed system is a combination of two SVM classifiers. The leadoff classifier tells apart the images that contain an umpire from the non-umpire images. These ‘umpire’ images are then carried forward to the event detection classifier while the ‘non-umpire’ images are repudiated. The second classifier is able to identify four gestures – ‘Six’, ‘Wide’, ‘No ball’ and ‘Out’ from the images, following which the scoreboard is updated. In addition to these four classes, one more label is defined to group those umpire frames within which the umpire does not show any signal, namely the ‘No Action’ class. The cricket video given as input is first split into number of shots and each frame is considered as a test image for the combined classifier system. A majority voter is used to confirm the final classification result which decreases the chances of misclassifications. The preliminary results suggest that the intended system is efficacious for the purpose of automating the updation of scoreboard during real time cricket matches.

Setting Target Scores of Better Acceptability in Interrupted Limited Over Cricket Matches by Introducing the Concept ‘Makeup Factor’

In the game of cricket, the advantage a team enjoys by doing better than what the par score demands at the time of interruption is something which should get distributed among rest of the overs. When the remaining overs get significantly reduced due to an interruption, as per the present methods, this entire advantage a team possesses at the time of interruption gets concentrated to a lesser number of overs, thus increasing their winning probability significantly. Makeup factor is a feature which makes a proportionate reduction in this advantage/disadvantage based on the proportion of the remaining overs after interruption to the originally remaining overs at the time of interruption.

Quantifying the Current Form of Cricket Teams and Predicting the Match Winner

The study tries to predict the outcome of Twenty20 cricket matches based on two prime skills of the game: batting and bowling. The two different measures, namely batting performance (BP) and adjusted combined bowling rate (ACBR), developed by Lemmer (2011, European Journal of Sport Science, vol. 13, pp. 200–206) and Lemmer (2012, European Journal of Sports Science, vol. 14, pp. S191–S196), respectively, are used to quantify the overall batting and bowling performances of cricket teams. The rationale of choosing BP is that it takes into consideration the match situation against which the runs are scored, and ACBR considers the strength of a batsman using wicket weights and adjusted number of runs conceded by the bowler along with the match situation. Both the measures, BP and ACBR, are combined to get the overall strength of a cricket team prior to the knock-out or play-off stage of any given tournament. Thereafter, the overall strength of a team is used to quantify the team’s current form. If the current form of Team A (say) is considerably higher than that of Team B (say), then it is predicted that Team A will win the match and vice-versa.

Bowling action and ball flight kinematics of conventional swing bowling in pathway and high-performance bowlers

ABSTRACT When executed correctly, swing bowling has the potential to influence the outcome of a cricket match, yet little is known about the required bowling action and ball flight characteristics. This study aimed to describe the bowling action and initial ball flight characteristics as well as to identify variables that may be associated with increased swing in pathway and high-performance medium and fast pace bowlers. A 17-camera Vicon motion analysis system captured retro-reflective markers placed on the upper-body of participants and new cricket balls to quantify bowling action and initial ball flight kinematics. Bowlers delivered the ball with their forearm and hand angled in the direction of intended swing with an extended wrist flexing through the point of ball release. Bowlers who produced more swing had increased seam stability, possibly linked to a lower wrist and ball angular velocity. It is believed that swing increases with seam stability, however, optimal ranges may exist for seam azimuth angle, ball angular velocity and release speed. These findings may assist coaches to optimise the performance of bowlers, however, future research should use bowlers who play at higher levels to investigate swing bowling at greater speeds.

Evaluating task design for skill development in an amateur female cricket team

ABSTRACT Background: Motor control and skill acquisition research have contributed greatly to understanding the learning process in sport, but very little of this knowledge has been applied in practice over the past fifty years. The characteristics of expertise in the two major cricket skills, batting and bowling, are well established but the training environments used to develop them are yet to be characterised. Recommendations on the how the ball is delivered (feed), decision making, task variability and information sources for skill development in cricket have been made previously in research. To promote skills which transfer between the training and performance environments, tasks should maintain the connection between the person, their task and the environment. Coaches have found it difficult to apply complex learning designs to their practice because the underpinning concepts remain unclear. Demystifying evidence-based practice for skill development in cricket is needed to make research knowledge more accessible for coaches. Purpose: Given club level cricket (amateur) is the stepping-stone of the talent development pathway for junior representative players pursuing elite status, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of skill development practices at this level and identify means of improvement. Methods: A categorical assessment tool was developed to assess 21 training sessions performed during an amateur women’s cricket team throughout the 2018/19 season. We assessed how the ball was delivered (feed), decision making elements, variability and sources of information available to ascertain the representativeness of each training session according to published research on skill development and expertise. The tool featured a scoring range (0–3) with maximum scores per discipline of 12 for bowling and 15 for batting. Key performance indicators (KPI), outlined by the head coach, were also collected during the season to assess game performance and explore any connections with training design. Results: A lack of variability in training design between the 21 sessions performed (<0.5 units on 0–3 scale) did not allow for a correlational analysis with game performance. In contrast, game KPIs were achieved sporadically throughout the season. The most representative training elements were provided for bowling feed (target), decision making and variability, while batting feed (type) and variability also scored well on the assessment tool. The maximum score for representativeness for bowling or batting was not reached, and training design remained largely unchanged throughout the season despite changes in match type, competition phase and consistent low scores in some elements. Conclusions: Some elements of representative learning design were apparent in this amateur cricket setting but only in discrete areas of training. Despite changes in the competition phase and match type, there was a lack of adaptation in training design. Future research is needed to evaluate the principles of representative training design and their effect on cricket skill development and match performance. A more sensitive categorical assessment tool may also be necessary to detect subtle changes in training design.

Investigating the Role of Opening Partners While Chasing on the Outcome of Twenty20 Cricket Matches

In cricket, irrespective of the format of the game, batting always happens in pairs. The two batsmen who bat together are called as batting partners. The pair of batsmen who come to bat at the beginning of any innings are called opening batsmen or opening partners. In Twenty20 cricket, the opening partners must start their innings with a definite strategy. In one hand, they have the advantage of only two fielders outside the 30-yard circle for the first six overs (technically called as the powerplay overs), and so both openers are expected to play high scoring shots and attempt to score runs quickly. On the other hand, the odds against them are the ball is new, so is the pitch and the bowlers are fresh and energetic. When any one of the opening batsmen loses his wicket, the partnership comes to an end. This study tries to figure out the influence of the opening partnership of the second innings on the outcome of Twenty20 matches. Pressure Index (developed by earlier researchers), effects of venue or ground and target score are used as explanatory variables in the logistic regression model to check if the performance of opening partnership influences the outcome of Twenty20 matches along with other variables. The data used for the exercise is from Twenty20 international cricket matches played within the period January 2012 to June 2018. The study finds that opening partnership while chasing is a significant factor in deciding the match outcome during the run chase for the said dataset. Also, the best opening batting partners have been identified.

The cricketer's shoulder and injury: Asymmetries in range of movement and muscle length.

BackgroundShoulder injuries in cricket are often undetected and untreated.ObjectivesTo determine whether there are associations between shoulder internal and external rotation range of movement (ROM), throwing arc (TA) ROM, glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD), external rotation gain (ERG), pectoralis minor muscle length and the incidence of shoulder injury during the first 3 months of a cricket season amongst provincial and club cricketers.MethodMale, actively participating, provincial and club cricketers were included in this prospective longitudinal cohort study. The independent variables included shoulder pain, which did not limit participation in cricket training and matches; shoulder external and internal rotation (ROM, TA ROM, GIRD and ERG) and pectoralis minor muscle length. Time-loss dominant shoulder injury was recorded for 3 months.ResultsNine of the 32 participants sustained dominant shoulder injuries. Initial non-time-loss shoulder pain during baseline testing was associated with time-loss in-season shoulder injury (p = 0.007). Statistically significant side-to-side differences were found for all of the independent variables (internal rotation ROM, TA ROM and pectoralis minor muscle length distance), with the exception of external rotation ROM, amongst the uninjured players.ConclusionNon-time-loss-defined shoulder pain in actively participating cricketers seems to be a precursor to time-loss shoulder injury. Asymmetries in ROM and pectoralis minor muscle length in uninjured cricketers may have a protective role to play in the case of shoulder injury.Clinical implicationsThe presence of shoulder pain and asymmetries in ROM should be investigated during the pre-season screening procedures, and early intervention should be implemented where appropriate.