Cricket neck guard testing – ICC

Following the tragic events surrounding the death of Phillip Hughes, and a growing number of head impacts to batters, a project was commissioned to investigate and assess the most appropriate testing methods for cricket neck guards.

Existing methodologies using a drop tower lacked realism to in-game impacts, opting for a high mass low velocity approach that was unlikely to indicate suitable performance.

Two testing protocols were explored, alongside a control using the drop tower.  Specifically these involved high-speed ball impacts on either a rigid plate or a freely suspended biofidelic head model.

Fundamental measures of force and contact time were used to assess test suitability and neck guard performance, alongside visual impact characteristics and impulse calculations.

Testing using five commercially available neck guards, as well as three control materials, indicated that rigid plate ball impacts offered the best compromise between realistic in-game impacts and the capability to take reliable measures of performance.

Two neck guard designs clearly outperformed the remaining three, and interestingly both the use of near-new cricket balls, and the ability to withstand multiple impacts without deterioration, further highlighted the best solutions.