Comparison of Sports Aggression among Cricket Players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh

“Aggression” is a term which was derived from a Latin word “Aggressio” which means assault or attack. Aggression can be also defined as the behavior directed towards the goal of harm, hurt or pain another person. It can be of in any form.  It is inherited as well as instinctual and can be either physical or verbal. Outside of war time, sport is the only set in which acts of interpersonal aggression is not only tolerated but applauded by a large part of society in an enthusiastic manner. In the individuals daily routine sports is playing a big role, most people are into watching sports events, and exercise is a good way to relax and entertain themselves. However, involving out in sports activities, whether it is as a spectators or as an athletes, sometimes due to the changes of emotional and Psychological states, various attacks that are difficult to estimate and predict occurs, and these unexpected situations can easily evolve into violent conflicts, resulting in the bad influence of public order-disorder, which not only affects the normal conduct of the competition but also brings negative sports impression to the audience, especially teenagers.

Sports aggression is a trademark that can have numerous negative and additionally beneficial outcomes on performance. People believe that aggression has negative psychological characteristics, however sports psychologists agree it can improve performance of players. Mostly aggression among the players are because of frustration and frustration results by blocked goals. It is noticed that, aggression in the players is common in these present days and various studies has been done by various researchers for highlighting consequences and the causes of aggression level on sports persons and some of them are, Khan (2015) found that, there is significant effect was  between the mean scores of batsmen and bowlers because of their aggression level. Singh et al., (2015) found a significant differences in respect to aggression and will to win among hand ball and footballers. Abraham (2014) conducted a study on comparison of defensive and offensive male footballers on aggression and anxiety. The result revealed that there is a significant effect is there in between among the defensive and attacking football players in aggression level. Midori et al., (2013) investigated aggressive behavior in the male cricketers. They found that antennectomized cricketers do not utilize visual or papal sensory input to elicit aggressive behavior. In contrast, intact males had shown aggressive behavioral aspects to male cubicula substances before and after winning a conflict situation, and if they losing a fight, they show avoidance behavior.

Problem: Comparison of  the level of  sports aggression, among  male cricket players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

Objective

·        To compare the level of aggression of Under – 16 cricketer players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

·        To compare the level of aggression of Under – 19 cricketer players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

·        To compare the level of aggression of Senior cricketer players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

Hypotheses

·        It is hypothesized that there was no significant difference between the aggression level among Under-16 cricket players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

·        It is hypothesized that there was no significant difference between the aggression level among Under-19 cricket players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

·        It is hypothesized that there was no significant difference between the aggression level among Senior cricket players of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

Variables:

In the present study three different age categories (Under-16, Under-19 and Senior) from Kerala and Madhya Pradesh were the experimental variables and sports aggression was criterion variable.

Sample:

The sample for this current study comprises 120 cricket players from Kerala and Madhya Pradesh (60) from each state, who had represented their state team in various National tournament. A total of 60 among the whole sample consist of Under-16 players, 20 among players are of Under-19 category and the remaining 20 are of senior category. (From each state).

Measuring tools:

Sports Aggression Inventory was used in this study. It was constructed and standardized by Mr.Anand Kumar and Mr. Prem Shankar Shukla. This inventory has 25 items in which 13 are keyed as “YES” and rest of 12 are keyed as “NO”. Score will be awarded for the correct answer as 1 mark for every right answer and zero will be awarded for the wrong. Score that obtained by each subject on each statement were added and was considered as one’s total score.

The objective of this study was “To compare the influence of State, Category level and their interaction on Sports aggression”. Three variables of this objective are State, Category level and Sports Aggression. State is the independent variable with two levels viz. Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. Category level is another independent level with three levels Under-16, Under-19 and Senior. Sports Aggression is the dependent variable. So, ANOVA was used for the analysis of this objective. A 2 x 3 (two-way) ANOVA was performed to analyze the influence of State and Category Levels on Sports Aggression.

From the Table, the F-value for Sports aggression scores with respect to the State was found to be 85.925. This value is significant at 0.00 level of significance, which is less than the 0.05 level of significance (alpha). Simple main effect analysis showed that State did have a statistically significant effect on Sports aggression (F (1,114) = 85.925, p = 0.00). Therefore, the null hypothesis, “There is no significant difference in the mean Sports aggression scores of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala Players” is rejected. Hence, State had significant influence on Sports aggression. Further analysis clarifies that mean Toughness scores of the Madhya Pradesh players (10.60) were found to be significantly more than the mean Toughness scores of the Kerala players (16.32).

From the Table it is clear that the F- value for Sports aggression scores with respect to the Category levels was found to be .400. This value is significant at 0.672 level of significance which is less than the 0.05 level of significance (alpha). Simple main effect analysis showed that Category Levels did have a statistically significant effect on Sports aggression (F (2,114) = .400, p = 0.672). This comparison is not logical for this study as two states are merged in category/level, so the further calculation and interpretation is ignored.

To look into which pair of Category levels are significantly different on Sports aggression a post-hoc analysis using LSD method was carried out. The results are as under

From table the Sports aggression scores of the three pairs (Under-16 —Under-19) players and (Under-16—Senior) players were found to have significantly different. i.e., the Sports aggression scores of the Under-16 Players were significantly different than the Under-19 players and the Sports aggression scores of the Under-16 Players were significantly different than the Senior players. Sports aggression scores of the Under-19 Players were also have significant difference than the senior players. Sports aggression of the Senior Players (13.80) was found to be more than the Under-19 (13.45) and Under-16 (13.13) Players.

The F- value for Sports aggression scores of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala players of Under-16, Under-19 and Senior categories was found to be .768. This value is significant at 0.467 level of significance which is greater than the 0.05 level of significance (alpha). A two-way ANOVA revealed that there was a statistically non-significant interaction of State and Category Levels on Sports aggression (F (2,114) = .768, p = 0.467).

Therefore, the null hypothesis, “There is no significant effect of interaction of State and Category levels on Sports aggression scores Players” is rejected. Hence, interaction of State and Category Levels had significant influence on Sports aggression.

Conclusively, from the Table and Graph, there is a significant main effect for State [F (1,114) = 85.925, p = 0.00]; a significant main effect for Category Levels [F (2,114) = .400, p = .672] and an interaction effect for State and Category levels, [F (2,114) = .768, p = .467] on Sports aggression.

The findings with respect to the objective are

q   State has significant influence on Sports aggression.

q   Category levels had significant influence on Sports aggression.

¾   The Sports aggression scores of the Under-16 Players of MP were significantly different than the Under-16 players of Kerala.

¾   The Sports aggression scores of the Under-19 Players of MP were significantly different than the Senior players of Kerala.

¾   The Sports aggression scores of the Senior Players of MP were significantly different than the Senior players of Kerala.

¾   Sports aggression of the Senior Players (13.80) was found to be more than the Under-19 (13.45) and Under-16 (13.13) Players.

q   Interaction of State and Category Levels had no significant influence on Sports aggression.

Taking help of Sports Psychology, and the assessment taken in Sports aggression of players or individuals’ performance in cricket not only demands systematic training to develop both part in physically and physiologically but also demanding training and considerations of psychological characteristics for the better performance in this field. To be at the top to take all the qualities in a cricket match, a players must need specific psychological characteristic. The players must have to keep their aggression level in a moderate level/control the emotions in various situation’s and must need an emotionally strong mind. Hence to satisfy this, the present study was conducted in the field of cricket and compared Kerala and Madhya Pradesh and its players those who represented their state for various national tournaments. By the assessment of Sports Aggression level, it helps to enhance the performance level which is affecting due to the aggression of a player. It also helps to determine proper trainings which is to be demanded by the player.

·        It is highly recommended to the coaches of Kerala Cricket Association & Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association to concentrate more on the aggression level training.

·        As the result of the study, it reveals that the players of Kerala Cricket Association have higher aggression level rather than the players Madhya Pradesh. So, it is recommended to the coaches of Kerala Team to give proper training to control the level of aggression of the players.

·        By giving aggression management training from the base level players of Under-16 category, it will help them to give consistency in performance level by coming up to the senior category.

·        For preparing the self-regulation program, the data of this study will be useful which may be designed to suit the particular need of the players of the country.

·        Study must be done for the women cricketers also.