Prevalence and incidence of injuries among female cricket players: a systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review is to describe the incidence and prevalence of injuries in female cricket players participating in recreational, school, club, and elite level cricket.

INTRODUCTION: Recent investments in women's cricket, stand-alone tournaments, and increased visibility through new broadcasting milestones has increased participation in many countries. With increased participation of women in cricket comes increased risk of injury. Epidemiological data are needed to underpin evidence-based injury-prevention strategies. No systematic review or meta-analysis of injuries is currently available to provide a comprehensive overview of synthesized findings to make the evidence accessible.

INCLUSION CRITERIA: Studies on female cricket players of all ages and participating in all levels of cricket will be included. Studies that contain data of only male cricket players will be excluded. Studies where data from female cricket players can be distinguished from male players will be included. Injuries sustained when playing cricket, that are self-reported or diagnosed by a health care professional will be included. Definitions of injury including, but not limited to, medical-attention injuries, general time-loss injuries, or player-reported injuries will be considered.

METHODS: MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), EBSCOhost MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost CINAHL Complete, ProQuest Health and Medical Complete, Scopus, and ScienceDirect will be systematically searched from inception to the present. Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and ClincalTrials.gov will be searched as well as gray literature databases. Retrieval of full-text studies, assessment of methodological quality, and data extraction will be performed independently by two reviewers. If possible, meta-analyses will be performed.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42020166052.