Global research on cricket injuries (1982-2025): A bibliometric analysis

Cricket is one of the most widely played sports worldwide and carries a significant burden of musculoskeletal injuries, particularly among fast bowlers. Over the past four decades, research in cricket injury epidemiology, biomechanics, workload monitoring, and surveillance has expanded substantially.

To conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of global cricket injury research, identifying growth trends, influential publications, leading contributors, collaboration networks, and major thematic domains.

Publications from 1982 to 2025 were systematically analyzed using bibliometric indicators including annual growth, authorship productivity, institutional and country contributions, citation impact, total link strength (TLS), and co-authorship networks. The top 100 cited papers and the top 10 highly cited papers (HCPs) were examined in detail to identify landmark contributions and research priorities.

A sharp rise in publications occurred after 2003, with nearly 90% of output produced in the last two decades. Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa led in productivity, citation impact, and collaborative link strength. The top 10 HCPs accounted for 10% of papers but 37.25% of total citations, underscoring concentrated scholarly influence. Fast bowlers consistently demonstrated the highest injury incidence, particularly lumbar spine and lower limb injuries. Workload spikes were strongly associated with increased injury risk, establishing load monitoring as a central preventive strategy. Biomechanical factors such as mixed bowling action, trunk rotation, and front-knee mechanics were linked to lumbar stress injuries. Standardized injury definitions and international consensus surveillance frameworks significantly improved research quality and comparability.

Cricket injury research has evolved into a mature, collaborative, and high-impact domain centered on fast bowling biomechanics, workload regulation, and surveillance standardization. Expanded global participation and integration of advanced analytics are essential for future injury prevention strategies.