Dietary Supplement and Aerobic Fitness Level of National Female Cricket Players in Sri Lanka

Abstract

A cricket team is made up of various types of players, each with their own specialized roles and responsibilities. These players come together to form a cohesive unit, working in tandem to achieve success on the field. They have specialized roles or skills that affect the physiological demands of match play. Due to the extended duration and variety of physiological demands, cricket has more different nutritional needs than many other sports. The prime aim of this study was to identify the relationship between dietary supplements and aerobic fitness level. A cross-sectional study was performed from December 2022 to January 2023. The female cricket players of the National Women’s cricket team were selected using a convenient sampling technique for this study (n=30, age=25.7±1.6, height=160.9±6.1, weight=49.7±5.1). The results were acquired using a dietary supplement questionnaire, which included 17 questions about personal information and dietary supplements, and a 2k test, which measured endurance capacity and required individuals to complete the test in less than 9.35 minutes of this examination. Pearson correlation and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data from Minitab 19 software. The relationship between aerobic fitness level and dietary supplement had a negative relationship (p= -0.073) and it revealed that there was no significant relationship between aerobic fitness level and dietary supplement (P>0.05). Creatine was utilized as a dietary supplement by 13.3% of athletes, whereas 26.6% did not use any dietary supplements. In conclusion, this study supposes that dietary supplements did not affect the aerobic fitness level in national female cricket players in Sri Lanka.