Anxiety and temperament characteristics of competitive cricketers

M.A.Sport in South Africa forms part of the fabric of our society. Unfortunately research into the psychology of sport has largely been overlooked in South Africa and where it has been applied it was based mainly on results arrived at in other countries. The development of future cricketers has enjoyed great success in both Australia and South Africa, with many current international cricketers having been through the respective Academies. The identification of future talent may be facilitated through the use of appropriate psychological interventions. The role of anxiety in sports has been much researched over the past four decades. There have been many theories advanced with regards the role that anxiety plays in effecting sporting performance. There is however a lack of research in a South African context. Foreign studies have found that anxiety (somatic) tends to follow an inverted-U and extremes of anxiety will negatively impact on performance. State anxiety has been found to enjoy an area or zone in which an atWetes performance is enhanced and outside of which performance is negatively effected. Research has found contradictory evidence as to the relationship between cognitive anxiety and performance. It is proposed that there is a negative relationship between the two. Research with regards to temperament has not been conducted in a cricketing context. The Iceberg Profile posits that there is a personality profile which identifies elite athletes. Studies have been conducted using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and have found that vigour, extraversion and the interest variable were significantly different between athletes and non-athletes. In order to establish whether there is a statistically significant difference in the levels of anxiety between successful and unsuccessful cricketers, three measuring instruments were used. The Revised NEG Personality Inventory, The Sport Competition Anxiety Test and the Profile of Mood States. Temperament differences were examined using the Revised NEG Personality Inventory and the Profile of Mood States. The two groups consisted of 20 male cricketers each. The successful group were all part of the 1999 Plascon Cricket Academy and the other cricketers were from non-premier league cricket sides. The study revealed that the successful group were significantly lower on the Neuroticism scale of the NEG PI-R and were less vulnerable to stress and anger than the unsuccessful group. The study also found that the successful cricketers were more extravert, had more energy, were more receptive to emotions and more sympathetic, less trusting and modest, more straightforward and had higher levels of aspiration than the unsuccessful cricketers. This supported some of the findings of the foreign studies. The Iceberg profile was not supported using the Profile of Mood States however, the fatigue sub-scale was found to be higher for the unsuccessful group. The Sport Competition Anxiety Test did not reveal significant results. A discussion of the results, limitations of the study and recommendations for future research follow this