Cricket specific injury prevention program for cricketers

The study will have three arms, two intervention groups and one control group. Intervention: The interventional groups will receive an injury prevention program (IPP) session either before or after their training or match. The team will be the unit of randomisation and intervention will be delivered at the team level. Each session will be approximately 20 minutes and will have exercises are divided in to 4 stages: 1) dynamic stretching and running exercises, 2) strength and agility, 3) balance and core strength and 4) game based exercises, with a total of 14 exercises to complete. This program has specific exercises targeting the body regions most commonly injured in cricket and will not require any equipment other than regular cricket gear. The reason for this is to make this IPP accessible to all as buying additional training equipment may be difficult for some community clubs. Frequency and Duration: Twice a week during the season (approximately 15-20 mins for session). Needs to be done throughout the 6 month season with a minimum at least 20 weeks of delivery. Who delivers the sessions: The team's coach. If a team has a Physiotherapist or a Strength & Conditioning coach they will deliver it. * Before the start of the season the team's coaching staff will be trained by the researchers on how to deliver the program. This training will be a single 2 hour workshop 4 weeks before the start of the season and a supervised 30 min session during the first week of training in the season. Description of exercises: There will be a total of 14 exercises which could be performed with cricket equipment. Exercises include: Hip-in and out running, lunges, vertical and lateral jumps, back extensions, push-ups, planks and its variations, 3 run sprinting with bats, shoulder external & internal rotations with a bat, modified rows & balance on cricket balls. The program will have two levels, beginner and advanced. the variations between the two are primarily a) increase in number of repetitions of an exercise by 50% in the same time i.e: increase from 6 reps to 9 reps b) modified rows are only in advanced program c) balance training done on 2 balls under each foot for beginners and of 1 ball under each foot for advanced, All participants will start with the beginner program and progression to the advanced level this will be subjective and determined by the coach by looking at their form. Monitoring adherence: All coaches will have a log-book in which player attendance will be marked.