MOJ Sports Medicine Musculoskeletal injuries among adolescent cricketers in Zimbabwe Introduction Many sports have been researched on, for example, soccer basketball and athletics among others due to their popularity in Zimbabwean schools. In African continent, there are few countries playing competitive cricket on One Day International (ODI) and T-test and these are South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Due that fact not much has been said in school cricket. The uniqueness of cricket is that unlike other target games like archery, darts and shooting; cricket demands hitting a target whilst in motion. This angular motion has a restrictive range of motion which can cause more complicated injuries to the player. Also cricket a more protected target is used despite the complexity of ROM and angular restrictions. Zimbabwe has become more popular in male and female professional cricket and street cricket in the recent decades. This sport is dynamic and involves a scientifc knowledge to cope with the new developments in the game. It involves many abstract skills and movements which need to be enhanced so that players are guaranteed that their bodies are kept in shape and strong. 1,2 At a young age, cricket is for enjoyment, health and professional development. Inevitably, injury is potential outcomes of participation hence young athletes are vulnerable to cartilage which is less resistance to repetitive micro injury, apophysis and growth plate’s injuries. 1,3-7 Competitive element intervenes young players’ decreased fexibility due to pronounced growth spurt through training harder and longer times which lead to varied physiologic response to exercise hence injuries. 4,7-9 Bowling, batting and felding are the three unique aspects of the game of cricket which are associated with risks of injury due to its repetitive nature and played often for long periods of time. 1,10 In cricket, musculoskeletal pain and injuries are very common. They can occur when a player had rapid rotational movements, collisions with other players, struck by a ball or bat, sliding and diving during felding and over-use injuries; thus physical macro trauma and microtrauma. 1,9,11 A single high force and impact incident results in a macro-trauma which whilst micro-trauma is a result of repetitive or chronic injury which can have a lifetime. 1,12 Importantly, inadequate nutritional intake, physical training and psychological preparation of players have great effects on muscle strength, endurance, fexibility, agility and ftness in the feld of play and therefore hinder player performance in the game of cricket. 7,13 Literature concentrate on cricket-related injuries affecting elite fast- bowlers; spinal abnormalities in young fast-bowlers, musculoskeletal pain among adolescent cricketers and prevalence of cricket-related musculoskeletal injuries among elite cricketers mentioning that the most common anatomical sites of injury identifed were lower limb, upper limb and lower back 1,2,9,11,14−18 whilst limited information exists regarding the Southern Africa high cricketer. It is imperative that the lack of information exists regarding the epidemiology of musculoskeletal pain and injury for high school cricketers. The current study aims at describing and documenting cricket-related musculoskeletal injuries among high school cricketers in Zimbabwe during inter-schools’ competitions. Volume 2 Issue 1 - 2018 Adiele Dube,¹ Morgan Patrick D Gundani,² Satish Rastogi³ 1 Department of Emergency Medical Care, Emergency Medical Rescue Services, Zimbabwe 2 Senior Lecturer, Department of Sports Science & Coaching, National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe 3 Professor & Coordinator, Institute of Distance Education, University of Swaziland, Swaziland Correspondence: Adiele Dube, Department of Emergency Medical Care, Emergency Medical Rescue Services, Zimbabwe, Email adieledube@yahoo.com Received: February 12, 2018 | Published: February 23, 2018 Abstract Aim: This is a study to describe and document cricket-related musculoskeletal injuries among high school male cricketers in Zimbabwe during inter-provincial competitions. Methods: This is a retrospective descriptive study. 240 male cricketers had been taken for this sample. An edited self-reported musculoskeletal questionnaire for pain assessment was used. The questionnaire was designed to obtain musculoskeletal pain, location of injury, type of injury and injury severity. The SPSS version 20.0 statistical software was used for data entry and statistical analysis. Pearson correlation analysis and Chi-square tests were performed. P-value ≤ 0.05 was regarded as significant. Results: Of the 240 adolescents’ high school cricketers surveyed, 81.25% experienced cricket-related musculoskeletal pain and injury within the previous season. There was a 35% prevalence of injuries among cricket players. The knee, lower back and shoulder were the three common most susceptible anatomical sites of musculoskeletal pain and injuries. Bowlers (36%) and batsmen (32%) had sustained highest percentage of injuries and compared to all-rounders (22%) and wicket-keepers (10%). Conclusion: Prevalence of musculoskeletal injury/pain is elevated among adolescents’ school boy cricketers. Male cricketers residing in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe experienced a high prevalence of musculoskeletal, ankle, knee, lower back, and shoulder pain. Coaches’ conditioning training programs and early rehabilitation by physiotherapists are indispensable to condense the injury rate in high school cricket. Keywords: all-rounder, batsmen, bowlers, musculoskeletal injury, sprain, strain Research Article Open Access Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com MOJ Sports Med. 2018;2(1):49‒52. 49 © 2018 Dube et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.