A Survey of the Performance Demands of Cricket Fielding and Wicket-Keeping

A Survey of the Performance Demands of Cricket Fielding and Wicket-Keeping

Cricket is one of the most watched team sports in the world, largely due to its popularity in Commonwealth countries. It is a game that has three formats (Test, One Day, and Twenty20) and all players are required to bat and field, whereas only some players bowl. Despite the importance of cricket fielding in the context of the game, there is a paucity of peer-reviewed research investigating fielding compared to the other components of the game. The only study which has investigated fielding skills with respect to position acknowledged the wicket-keeper as a specialist position within the fielding unit. However, despite this there have been only two studies investigating the wicket-keeper specifically. One study investigated the footwork patterns of wicket-keepers and the other investigated the forces exerted on the knees with different wicket-keeping crouch techniques.