Published Paper Details:

Background Cricket is a popular sport in India and almost all of the states takes part in it. Psychological skills have always played an important role in athletic performance. Anxiety is one of several conditions, such as mood, which can often occur without an identifiable triggering stimulus. So it is that, unlike fear, is emotionally responsive to the concerns of a perceived threat. Objective Our goal was to analyze the state trait anxiety domain of cricket players at District, State and National levels with the help of state trait anxiety inventory. Material and Method In this study, 120 male (60 Batsmen and 60 Pace bowlers) were selected from various sports academies / training centres in India. The state trait anxiety (STAI-40) was used to measure the domains of state trait anxiety inventory. The one-way MANOVAs (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) has been used to compare the differences among psychological variable at different levels of batsmen and pace bowlers Results National level batsmen scored high in state anxiety as compared to district level (MD=9.35; p?0.05); and district level (MD= 6.60; p?0.05) batsmen. State level pace bowler scored high on state anxiety and close to significant (MD=7.05; p?0.05) as compared to national level pace bowlers. National level batsmen scored high on trait anxiety (MD= 8.10; p<0.05) as compared to district level. Different levels of Pace bowlers and batsmen did not differ significantly on different variables. Conclusion Our study shows that certain aspects of state anxiety are associated with cricket players at different levels of participation (district, state and national). State level pace bowlers showed high level and close to significant on state anxiety variable while national level batsmen showed greater state anxiety than district and state level batsmen. National level batsmen showed greater trait anxiety than other level batsmen. As the game of cricket requires a variety of ways to fully define the concept of "Form", other state trait anxiety forms such as irritability, fear, muscle tension etc. and coaching features that should focus on how to remove these forms of anxiety during and pre competition.