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The glove compartment

TIP Opt for flexible gloves

Protecting hands has been a priority in cricket since 1300 CE, when a forerunner of the game, known as “creag”, was played with a hard ball called “gillamachugger”. Batting and ’keeping gloves have been around forever, but the hands remain the most injury-prone body parts.

Wicketkeepers: they wear the thickest gloves. So how come Ian Healy’s fingers got to be so gnarled? Although gloves protect against serious injury, the flexibility required of them limits their cushioning ability. They are not effective when the ball lands off-centre from the middle of the palm. Finger fractures, split webbing and wrist fractures can occur with such impacts.

Gloves must absorb kinetic energy and necessarily transmit it to the hands if the ball is not to bounce from the grasp, and this leads to chronic injuries from impact. In the old days, ’keepers used to cushion the insides of gloves with pieces of steak- especially when standing up to the quicks. ’Keeping gloves have improved considerably in the last few decades, but they are not perfect yet.

Batsmen: gloves are not much help when the ball hits fingers clasped around the bat handle. The wrist and the area above it remain vulnerable because batsmen would rather leave them bare and ungloved than be caught out from a nick on the glove. Gloves must be flexible enough to grip a bat handle, and this limits their ability to absorb impact.

Fielders in close-in position suffer hand injuries from full-blooded shots or balls flying off the bat’s edge. The right treatment for fractured fingers or ruptured finger ligaments may involve splinting and immobilisation. Unfortunately, this is not an option if you want to grip a bat later in the same game. Neglect turns acute fielding injuries into chronic pain, stiffness and deformity.

Fall on an outstretched hand can cause fractures and dislocations of the wrist and forearm, but most falls in the outfield are usually not so serious.

Gloves or no gloves, it is impossible to eliminate all hand injuries in cricket. Hand-eye coordination is perhaps the most important injury-preventing skill. It is the captain’s responsibility to post the players with the best reflexes in close-in positions.

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