The Science of Sports Recruitment

About the event

Cricket is a global sporting phenomenon. With millions of players and in excess of a billion fans around the world, cricket is also big business. The high physical loads associated with professional cricket necessitate the appropriate monitoring of workloads, examinations of technique for injury risks and recruitment of talent for the continual development of the game. Cricket also transcends competition and is an important part of culture for millions of people around the world. Participation at the community level can improve social connectivity and enhance quality of life.

The strategic partnership between UTS and Cricket NSW is influencing aspects of cricket from the high performance domain through to the community level. Expert staff from both organisations, along with research students, are working collaboratively to co-design research which can inform practice to enhance athlete well-being along with community engagement.

This session will feature a facilitated discussion to highlight the scope of the Partnership between UTS and Cricket NSW, the range of projects being undertaken and a focus on the use of technology involved in a landmark project to assess and improve bowling performance in women’s cricket.

Timing

Guests will be able to walk through the area between 10.00am – 12.00pm for coffee, with a facilitated discussion to be held from 10.30 – 11.00am and repeated from 11.00 – 11.30am.

Facilitators

Mark Watsford (UTS, Facilitator)

Mark is the Deputy Head of School (Research) in the School of Sport Exercise & Rehabilitation at UTS. He has over 20 years experience working in academic and professional sporting environments, publishing 90 peer-reviewed research papers and overseeing a range of research contracts. Mark has extensive experience with the physiological and biomechanical assessment of athletes with a focus on athlete monitoring and well-being.

Patrick Farhart (Cricket NSW)

Patrick is a sports science and sports medicine professional with vast experience in the assessment and management of musculoskeletal injury in sportspeople. He is currently the Head of Sports Science & Sports Medicine for Cricket NSW, and has over 30 years of experience in the clinical management of musculoskeletal injury in professional sporting teams. Patrick has worked with the Australian and Indian national cricket teams, and domestic teams in Australia, India and England including NSW Blues, Sydney Sixers, Hampshire, Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab. He is currently undertaking a PhD at UTS that is looking to develop effective approaches of predicting, preventing and managing lumbar spine injuries in fast bowlers through improved radiological analyses and modelling that more accurately represent the kinematics and kinetics of the lumbar spine during fast bowling.

Libby Pickering Rodriguez (UTS)

Libby is a Lecturer in biomechanics in the in the School of Sport Exercise & Rehabilitation at UTS. She conducts research in the field of applied biomechanics, most recently in technique analysis using 3D motion analysis systems. Libby is the lead biomechanist on Project 130, aiming to monitor and safely enhance bowling performance in women cricketers. She has a wide range of experiences in the assessment of kinematics and kinetics, performing research in collaboration with sporting organisations including the Sydney Swans, NSW Swifts, Rugby Australia and Cricket Australia.