The science keeping quicks on the park

Mitchell Starc's involvement in last week's opening Test in Perth should be celebrated as a sports science triumph rather than demonised as bureaucratic interference according to the Australia team's medical and fitness staff.

Starc, Australia's stand-out bowler in the first innings against South Africa at the WACA Ground, was left short of match conditioning leading into that match having sustained a serious leg injury seven weeks earlier.

The fact that the 26-year-old bowled only 19 overs in the sole Sheffield Shield match he played in the lead-up to the Test – and did not bowl at all in the second innings of that match for New South Wales – raised the ire of former Test quick Merv Hughes.

Who claimed the influence of medical staff in player management matters had created a culture in which fast bowlers were "wrapped in cotton wool" and sports science experts would regularly "baby" them.

And with Starc's fellow quick Peter Siddle – who also underwent a lengthy recent lay-off due to a back injury – once again sidelined with back soreness after the Perth Test, other former greats have proffered their views on the way fast bowlers are managed.

Including ex-Test spearhead Mitchell Johnson who claimed that, despite the quantum advances in sports science over the past decade, fast bowlers are still succumbing to serious injuries and being forced to spend lengthy periods in rehabilitation.

But at a media briefing held at Hobart's Blundstone Arena, where the second Commonwealth Bank Test begins on Saturday, members of Australia's Bupa Support Team Medical Staff refuted a number of the assertions floated in recent days.

"It's well known we had two fast bowlers going into that Test who were underdone," team physiotherapist David Beakley said.

"Starcy played the Shield match about five and a half weeks post his knee injury, which is amazing he got back that quickly.

"Three weeks immobilised in a knee brace, a couple of weeks bowling preparation under his belt to play in the Shield match."

And Australia team coach and national selector Darren Lehmann reaffirmed that while the assessment and recommendations of medical and sports science staff were taken into account, the final decision on whether a bowler plays or not is made by the selectors in consultation with the individual concerned.

Which included Starc, even though his rapidly increased workload in Perth puts him at risk of injury if replicated in Hobart and beyond.

"We make the final call at the end when we're selecting them, but obviously we take all the info into account for that," Lehmann said today.

"You're speaking to the bowler first and foremost – if the player's uncomfortable they'll tell us, tell the medical staff first and then the selectors.

"That's how open we are.

"We've always said if the bowler's not 100 per cent fit, he won't play."

Doctor Peter Brukner said the fact that Starc was able to take part in the summer's first Test less than two months after receiving 30 stitches to close a gaping wound in his left shin caused by a training mishap, represented an "amazing" feat by fitness and medical staff and national and state level.

"This guy (Starc) had really nasty deep wound, 30 stitches in his wound," said Brukner, who also conceded that sports science and medical staff 'bent the rules' to get the 26-year-old back to playing so quickly.

"Generally speaking, that's six weeks before you'd even start walking or running and he's played a Test match at (seven) weeks.

"And it seems quite ironic we (team medical staff) seem to be copping all this criticism for what I think is one of the great triumphs of medical care."

Brukner said that fast bowlers are most susceptible to stress-related injuries before they reach age 25, by which time their bones are sufficiently mature and strong.

And that Starc has bowled the third-most number of deliveries of any fast bowler in Australian first-class cricket up to age 25 behind former Test quicks Graham McKenzie and Craig McDermott.

A rare pair of bowlers who began playing for Australia as teenagers and whose early international careers were not blighted by serious injury.

Starc's current new-ball partner Josh Hazlewood is seventh on that list behind Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Bruce Reid with Dennis Lillee – the man whose serious back injury triggered the scientific study of fast bowler workloads and their impact – ranked eighth.

While that refutes suggestions that the current crop of fast bowlers are being mollycoddled, it also underscores the paucity of cricket played by a number of contemporary young fast bowlers who have been plagued by injury.

In particular, 23-year-old Pat Cummins and 26-year-old James Pattinson who have played one and 17 Tests respectively since they both burst on to the international scene in 2011.

A fact tendered by some critics as evidence that the sports science model is not effectively preventing young fast bowlers to avoid injury.

But in response to claims that Starc, Siddle and even Hazlewood had been under-bowled in the lead-up to the first Test, Beakley noted that it was a vast increase in bowlers' workloads over a short period rather than volume of overs that sounded alarm bells.

"The notion that bowling workload monitoring is about restricting bowlers from bowling is certainly not the case from our perspective," Beakley said.

"Basically what we're trying to achieve the majority of the time is that the bowlers are adequately prepared for the demands of Test cricket.

"It's about building up their loads in a smart way so they're adequately prepared for what they're going to face in the match."

Beakley said that research showed fast bowlers who doubled their output within a week were almost five times more likely to be injured, and it was therefore the aim of medical staff to keep them below a 50 per cent increase in workload over that time.

He also cited some of the earliest data into injuries among fast bowlers that was gathered across Perth's grade cricket competitions in the 1980s that showed around 50 per cent of all quicks were affected.

In recent years throughout Australian cricket that prevalence has dropped to between 15 and 25 per cent, with the most recent annual data from last year showing an injury rate of around 17 per cent.

"The underlying science behind that is that the body responds to a dose of exercise by increasing the resilience to the structures that are going to be put under load," Beakley said.

Image Id: E9030BCAD5BB42F7BA20375A24BD0196 Image Caption: Team physio David Beakley, left, with Siddle and Lehmann // Getty

"Whether that's bone, soft tissues, tendon, ligaments, whatever, this is a process that takes weeks, months or years in some cases to develop.

"It's not something where you can say bowl this week so you're hardened next week for a Shield match, it doesn't work like that.

"It takes a minimum of six weeks for that hardening to occur.

"So we work back through what the bowler's achieved over the previous four weeks to see what will adequately prepare them for the following week."

International cricket is more affordable than ever this summer, with adult tickets from $30, kids from $10 and family packages from $65 across every day of international cricket. Price for purchase at match. Transaction fee from $6.95 applies to online and other purchases. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.