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USE OF SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING

PERFORMANCE IN CRICKET

Article in Sport Education and Society · August 2014

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 A Bi-Annual International
Research journal
Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 2348 - 8921
Volume1 -- Issue III

PP: 1-5 Paper 1 Design: Thematic/Subjective Received on July’2014 - Reviewed on Aug’2014

USE OF SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING

PERFORMANCE IN CRICKET

AUTHORS

*Shrikrishna Patel **Dhananjay Singh *** Anurag Tripathi

*
Faculty of Education, D.A.V. Training College, Kanpur(UP) INDIA
**
Department of Physical Education, C.S.J.M. University, Kanpur (UP) INDIA
***Research Scholar, M.G.C.G., Satna (M.P.) INDIA

ABSTRACT

Griffiths (1999) a renowned sport psychologist in Australia assured that “cricket coaching is 50 years
behind sprint coaching” in USA and Europe. The author added that he subscribes to a sprint coaching
journal and it appears to him that he is reading a physics journal. Sprint coaching depends to a great extent
on physics. This suggests that top coaches of this track and field event use a great deal of “hard”
technologies. There are several sport academies in Australia. They have contributed significantly to that
country being at the top of the official ranking in cricket for a long period. If cricket coaching in Australia is
so far behind sprint coaching a realist can imagine how far behind are ASIAN countries? Obviously we have
a lot of “catching up” to do.

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 A Bi-Annual International
Research journal
Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 2348 - 8921
Volume1 -- Issue III
INTRODUCTION
Two hard and two soft technologies will be addressed in this paper:
THE “HARD” TECHNOLOGIES OF SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
1. The use of high speed cinematography
2. The use of electrocardiograms
THE “SOFT” TECHNOLOGIES OF SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
1. Visualization or Guided Imagery
2. Optimum arousal level

Griffiths (1999) a renowned sport psychologist in Australia assured that “cricket coaching is 50 years behind
sprint coaching” in USA and Europe. The author added that he subscribes to a sprint coaching journal and it
appears to him that he is reading a physics journal. Sprint coaching depends to a great extent on physics. This
suggests that top coaches of this track and field event use a great
deal of “hard” technologies. There are several sport academies in Australia. They have contributed
significantly to that country being at the top of the official ranking in cricket for a long period. If cricket
coaching in Australia is so far behind sprint coaching a realist can imagine how far behind are ASIAN
countries. Obviously we have a lot of “catching up” to do.

In the today’s high tech cricketing world “use of high speed cinematography to evaluate every motion, every
tic and every idiosyncrasy within a player is common practice.”
There is a computer programme that can simulate what happens to our batsmen when they are in the
middle.
The simulation can also tell which balls are likely to induce a batsman to make a bad stroke and get
out.
Our competitors’ bowlers then go to the nets and practice bowling these balls until they perfect them.
They then use these deliveries when our batsmen are in the middle.

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 A Bi-Annual International
Research journal
Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 2348 - 8921
Volume1 -- Issue III
Other equipment which is used in cricketing world includes electrocardiograms (EKGs) and wireless heart
monitors for stress recovery balance for batsmen and bowlers.
For batsmen, stress recovery balance is the necessary condition after a stroke and before preparation
for the next delivery.
During this resting period the player’s heart rate should drop and his breathing should indicate that he
is totally relaxed.
When one’s stress recovery balance is not achieved then the athlete’s body is tense. His muscle reflex
actions are not smooth as they should be.
If this high stress level is maintained during the resting periods this can result in bad shot selection as
well as uncoordinated strokes.
In this scenario (1) the batsman is more likely to make a “get out shot” and (2) the bowler is more probable
to lose his length, line and guile and give away four runs.

Visualization or Guided Imagery in Cricket

After winning the finals against Srilanka, the Indian teams, in their interviews talk about how they
had set the goal of winning the World Cup 1.5 years back, and they were focused on the goal with a
lot of work on the mental aspects of achieving it.
Perhaps the coach used techniques of visualization and guided imagery where every player
consistently practiced the mental rehearsal of their long term goal and short terms goals clearly and
specifically every day till the D-day arrived.
Promoting the visualization of positive scenes, such as run-scoring or wicket-taking moments, has
become part of the coaching manual of many cricket teams, thanks to psychological research.

“I would like to thank the support staff especially Mike Horn who joined us at the start of the
tournament and was there for our last couple of games. He worked on the mental side and has helped
us deal with the expectations and pressure”
– SACHIN TENDULKAR
Optimum Arousal Level
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 A Bi-Annual International
Research journal
Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 2348 - 8921
Volume1 -- Issue III
Arousal comprises several factors. Three of them are anxiety, motivation and focus, There is a curvilinear
relationship between arousal and performance (May & Asken, ibid)

Martens and Landers (1970) and Klavora (1977) confirmed this curvilinear, an inverted-U, relationship
between arousal and performance from their research. Cricketers that tend not to perform at their peak
consistently, The research findings strongly suggest that their inconsistency may be related to variations in
their arousal levels.

REFERENCES

Andrew, K. (1987), Coaching Cricket, the Crowwood Press, Wiltshire.

Brown A. and Cocking R., (1998), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School, National
Academics Press, Washington.
Griffiths, Robert.(1999) Modern psychology for cricket and other Australian sports. Sidney.Odlum &
Garner.

Klavora, P. (1977) An attempt to derive inverted-U curves based on the relationship between anxiety and
athletic performance. In D. Landers & R. Christina (Eds.), Psychology of motor behaviour and sport.
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
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 A Bi-Annual International
Research journal
Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 2348 - 8921
Volume1 -- Issue III

Lenon J. (1995), Mental Imagery and Visualisations, From the Mind’s Machine the Computers Screen,
Proceedings of EDMEDIA 95, Graz, Austria.

Martens, R. (1987), Coaching Guide to Sports Psychology, Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc, Illionis.

Suinn, R. (1984) Sports psychology and the Olympics: Innovative issues of behavioural Principles. Invited
address at the 18th annual convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behaviour Therapy,
Philadelphia,

Ungerleider, S. (1996) Mental training for peak performance. Emmaus, Pensylvania.

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