Cricketers need water

Cricketers perform better when properly hydrated.

Cricket is a largely inexplicable game to the uninitiated. Although the rules and aims of the game remain obscure one thing is clear to even the least cricket-savvy observer; cricket involves lots of standing around, often in the sun. Cricket-philes (self-dubbed “cricket tragic”) will know that fast bowlers who find themselves standing deep in the outfield will spend a lot of their rest time guzzling fluid. Batsmen too, will often ask for a change of gloves and take the opportunity to have a dink as well. The cricket day is also punctuated by things called “drinks breaks” but is all of this imbibing of fluid really necessary for cricketers? According to a new study the answer to that is an emphatic “yes”.

The new study was conducted by the University of Stirling and involved a group of 30 cricketers from the elite Sri Lankan national training squad. It assessed the affects of dehydration on cricket specific skills including throwing, bowling speed, bowling accuracy, and batsmen’s running speed. This was done through two standard two-hour training sessions; one involved adequate water intake while the other involved restricted fluid intake.

The results showed that when dehydrated fielders suffered a drop in accuracy and throwing speed of around 22 per cent. Bowlers also experienced a drop in speed and accuracy of about 20 per cent. Batsmen were less affected by dehydration and only took marginally longer to complete three runs when they needed water.

For both bowling and fielding then, and especially since cricket is usually played in hot and humid conditions, it seems that all of that fluid intake actually is essential.

Source:  International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism<