Cricket

An estimated 480,000 Australians aged 15 and over played cricket in 2019–20.  There were 1,080 injury hospitalisations attributed to cricket—1,010 male and 70 female. This was a similar number to the year before. For those aged 15 and over, the hospitalisation rate was about 195 per 100,000 participants.

The highest number of hospitalisations was in the 30–34 age group (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Age distribution of cricket injury hospitalisations, 2019–20

Column graph showing the age distribution of injury hospitalisations.

Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A14.

Over half of the hospitalisations were fractures (54%) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Cricket injury hospitalisations, by type of injury as a proportion, 2019–20

Bar graph showing the proportion of injury hospitalisations by main type of injury.

Note: Type of injury is derived from the principal diagnosis.
Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A25.

There were 33 hospitalisations for concussion.

The main injury was to the wrist or hand in 4 out of 10 cases (40%), and to the head or neck in about 2 in 10 cases (22%) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Cricket injury hospitalisations, by principal body part injured, as a proportion, 2019–20

Outline of a person with body regions labelled, marked with the percentage of hospitalised injuries for each region.

Note: Body part injured is derived from the principal diagnosis.
Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A26.

Sports equipment incidents, such as being hit by the ball, were the most common cause of injury (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Cause of injury as a proportion when specified, cricket injury hospitalisations, 2019–20

Bar graph showing the proportion of hospitalisations by cause of injury when specified. Sports equipment 60%25.

Source: AIHW NHMD.

For more detail, see data table A27.

Seasonality and COVID-19

As a summer sport, cricket tends to see injury hospitalisations peak in late spring and summer. The COVID-19 lockdowns beginning in March 2020 appear to have disrupted off-season activities, resulting in less hospitalisations than expected when compared with the previous two years (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Cricket injury hospitalisations by month of admission, 2017–18 to 2019–20

Line graph with 3 lines for 3 financial years of hospitalisations by month of admission, illustrating the drop in hospitalisations after March 2020.

Notes
1. Months have been standardised to 31 days.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see data table B3.