Players gripped by injury fear as World Cup draws near
PODCAST
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is holding its first World Cup in South Africa this summer, and while the tournament may have drawn the world’s attention, it has had a bigger impact on the game of cricket.
It is also shaping the sport around it, with fears and anxieties about the tournament spreading to countries all around the world.
While everyone has been talking about the ICC World Cup, there is much more at stake right now than simply the ICC World Cup.
What we are talking about here is how injury affects a player’s chances of playing at the 2020 ICC World Cup and, specifically, the World Cup.
In particular, the ICC World Cup has made it a little easier to compare and contrast player injuries over the past 20 years.
On the pitch
On average, players in the last two World Cups who had previously been injured had a better chance of returning to play than those who hadn’t.
On-field injuries have continued to rise over the last 20 years, as the pace of cricket and the increasing involvement of bowlers in the game has come under pressure.
Injuries to batsmen have risen to the top of the list, and while figures for the World Cup are less consistent – partly due to data limitations – they show a similar trend, with a slightly higher risk of returning.
The average injury rate of batsmen in the last two World Cups who had previously been injured was 4.3 per 100 games, compared to an average of 3.1 per 100 games for those who’d never been injured before playing in the tournament.
In short, compared to the past, playing in the World Cup has made it far easier for batsmen to return to the form they expect a regular batsman to have.
However, for the moment, this has been a mixed blessing for those who have sustained injury. For players who have been injured before, injuries in the World Cup have put them on the sidelines for longer than they would have been if they’d never been injured before. This is especially true of those batsmen who took up a new position in the side, or whose previous position was one of cover.
On the field
In terms of the on-field, players coming back from injury – or those returning to the side from the sidelines – have had a bad time
