Affiliations: [a] Sport Science (Human Movement Science), 10 Boom
Street, Miederpark, Potchefstroom, 2531, South Africa | [b] Applied Exercise Physiology, School for Biokinetics,
Recreation and Sport Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, North-West
University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, 2521, South Africa
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to determine which of the isokinetic
knee and shoulder strength parameters discriminate between successful and less
successful provincial academy cricket batsmen and to assess the contribution of
isokinetic knee and shoulder strength parameters to the performance of these
athletes. Twenty-two contracted batsmen (20.63 ± 1.62 years) from the
Gauteng and North-West Cricket Academies in South Africa were tested during the
2004 and 2005 seasons. The discriminant analyses showed that no strength, work
or power parameters discriminated significantly between the successful (top 5
ranked batsmen of both seasons) and less successful academy batsmen. A forward
stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that the contribution of
individual knee-related isokinetic parameters ranged 4–16% whereas for the
shoulder the range was 4–28%. However knee parameters accounted for a total
of 57% of the difference between the more and less successful batsmen while
the corresponding share in terms of shoulder parameters was even higher:
61%. The conclusion that can, therefore, be drawn is that isokinetic knee
and shoulder strength parameters contribute to the performance of provincial
academy cricket batsmen and that these components should be included in the
talent identification protocols for young promising batsmen.
