Physical Match Demands of International Female Cricketers

Background

To date, despite the global growth of women’s cricket, little is known regarding the physical demands of female International and domestic cricket matches.

Understanding the physical match demands and the key physical attributes will enable coaches and practitioners to better prepare cricketers for future major tournaments.

Therefore, the aims of the project include:

• Understand the physical match demands.
• Understand the physical attributes that influence match outcome. 

Additional Responsibilities

Alongside their research project the successful candidate will support England Women’s Sports Science & Medicine team in the areas outlined below. This work will largely be based at the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University but will also at times require some travel to other venues.

• Assistance with day-to-day GPS data processing and usage
• Assistance with Profiling and screening
• Supervision of athletes under the direction of the Lead ECB Women’s S&C
• Any other reasonable tasks required to support the S&C ECB Women’s S&C team on the ground.

Funding

The funding for this studentship covers:

• The cost of Home tuition fees. Due to this funding only Home candidates can apply for this studentship.
• An additional CPD budget of £1,890 to cover write up fees and travel expenses. 

Please note that this studentship is for a one year Master of Science by Dissertation (MSD) research degree. At the moment we are not able to fund this as a PhD project.

Supervisors

This project will be led by Dr Jamie Tallent, who will be joining the University of Essex from October 2021, with external collaboration from Dr Samuel Callaghan (St. Mary’s University).

From the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) the project lead will be Dr Thamindu Wedatilake (Research Lead England Women), Ian Durrant (Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach England Women), and Rob Ahmun (Head of Strength and Conditioning, ECB).

Criteria

Applicants will need to possess the following qualifications and experience:

• At least a 2:1 Honours degree (or equivalent) in strength and conditioning or sport sciences related subject.
• Experience handling GPS data.
• Experience of handling large data sets.
• Athletic coaching experience and UKSCA Accreditation (or working towards).
• A UK driving licence.

Although this studentship is led by the University of Essex, the work will be carried out at Loughborough and the successful candidate will be based there, rather than at Colchester.

How to apply

You can apply for this postgraduate research opportunity online. 

You will need to upload the following documents:

• Research proposal of no more than 600 words, outlining suggested research focus(es), approach(es) and/or studies that applicants would be interested to include within their MSD.
• CV
• Covering letter
• Transcripts of any undergraduate or masters qualifications.

Applications must be submitted by 5pm on 26th November 2021. The successful candidate will start at the end of January 2022.

Instruction to applicants

When you apply online you will be prompted to fill out several boxes in the form:

• For "Course title" please select "MSc (by Dissertation) Sport and Exercise Science".
• For "Proposed research topic or area of research" please put the title of this studentship “Physical Match Demands of International Female Cricketers”.
• For "If you have contacted a potential supervisor..." please put the name of the Essex supervisor (Dr Jamie Tallent).

If you have any informal queries about this opportunity, including about the terms and conditions, please email Dr Jamie Tallent (jamie.tallent@essex.ac.uk).