Page 16 - PESY Vol 7 No 4

PESY: Print ISSN 2231-1394, Online ISSN 2278-795X Vol. 7 No 4

COMPARISON OF SPORT COMPETITION ANXIETY OF UNIVERSITY
CRICKET (WOMEN) PLAYERS

Lt (Dr.) Harjit Kaur, Assistant Director, Department of Physical Education, The Maharaja
Sayajirao University of Baroda, Baroda, Gujarat

ABSTRACT
Cricket is a popular sport in India and Gujarat is a legendary place for it.A large
number of players take up professional cricket but there is a limitation of scope for all the
budding professionals. Cricket was chosen for research due to the localinterest in the game.
Any competition is known to result in anxiety of various levels prior to and during the
competition. Level of competition anxiety amongst players was taken up for study to find out
if it was team specific. For the purpose of study, four teams participating in the All India
Inter-University Cricket (Women) Tournament were selected at random. The players were
approached a day prior to the competition. The Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT)was
administered and the response obtained from the teams. The collected data was compiled and
the scores were used for statistical analysis.
Key Words: Competition, anxiety, SCAT, competition anxiety, team, data, cricket,sport,
player, study

INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is a psychological phenomenon. Individuals experience different levels of
anxiety under similar situations. Anxiety may be a result of the uncertainty of the outcome of
a competition, fear of failure, or merely the doubt of not reaching the desired or set target.
Since anxiety is an internal state, the levels exhibited by individuals vary. Moreover, requisite
training to overcome anxiety or to convert the negative impacts to positive outcomes may be
learned by the players. A range of psychometric tests or sport anxiety questionnaireshave
been used by sports psychologists to understand and measure this condition. Marten (1990)
developed anxiety traits (A-trait) questionnaires that were tailored specially to sport known
as the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT). Marten (1990) recognised that any measure
of sport anxiety must take into consideration; cognitive anxiety (negative thoughts, worry)
and somatic anxiety (physiological response). This paper tries to explore the anxiety level of
players prior to the competitions for women cricket players participating in the All India
Inter-University Cricket (Women) Tournament.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
(i) To study the competition anxiety levels of players of four teams chosen at random
from the All India Inter-University Cricket (Women) Tournament
(ii) To measure the SCAT scores of the players
(iii) To compare the SCAT scores of different team players
(iv) To study the effect of region on the competition anxiety.

HYPOTHESIS
There is no difference in the means of the competition anxiety scores of players
representing different teams.

RESEARCH (ALTERNATIVE) HYPOTHESIS
There will be a significant difference in the competition anxiety levels of the players
representing at least one university team

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