Visual and Ocular Motility Performance of One Hundred Cricketers

Shayne Brown, FOAA, DipAppSc(Cumb), DOBA
Terry Couper, DipAppSc(Linc), DOBA

Evidence from the USA suggest that good standards of vision and general ocular co-ordination are factors in higher levels of skill of baseball players. A similar study has not been conducted on a group of Australian sportsmen. The purpose of this study was to establish the relevance that various ocular standards have on performance skills of a group of cricketers of varying capabilities. The sample population comprised 100 cricketers from 1st grade to 10th grade. The tests performed were: visual acuity, cover test, ocular rotations, fusion, and stereopsis and colour vision. The different grades of cricketers were compared with respect to their performance on these tests to ascertain whether or not visual and ocular motility defects were influential factors in performance levels.
The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference (p<0.001) between the ocular status of cricketers in the higher grades as compared to those in the lower grades on the tests performed.