Emotional Intelligence and Competitive Anxiety as a Predictor of Successful Performance in Domestic International Cricketers

Abstract

The aim of the study was be find out whether Emotional Intelligence and Competitive Anxiety are predictors of successful performance in international/domestic cricketers. Cricketers were administered Scale of Emotional intelligence by by Batool, & Khalid (2011), Competitive Anxiety Questionnaire by Martens et al (1999) and Test of Performance Strategies by Thomas Patrick (2007). Psychometric properties of the tools used in the study was high i.e. .85 for scale of emotional intelligence, .76 for test of performance strategies and .61 for sports competition anxiety test. Considering the ethical guidelines, permission was taken from the authors as well from the management of the Pakistan Cricket Board to conduct study on the international/domestic cricketers. Purposive sampling was used in the study, sample included 70 cricketers from National cricket academy and Model town green cricket club, Lahore. Results were calculated through Regression analysis, linear regression analysis through enter method was run on (SPSS-21). The results depicted negative but not significant correlation between competitive anxiety and performance, it was also revealed that emotional intelligence had negative but not significant correlation with competitive anxiety. The results showed that emotional intelligence and competitive anxiety did not come out as significant predictors of performance and its sub scales. However experience and income from demographic variables predicted high performance. There were limitations like time constraints, tough schedules of the players and not getting enough data from International cricketers. It was concluded that role of Psychologist needs acknowledgement in a sports like cricket and recommendations were made regarding a role of Sports Clinical Psychologist in Pakistan Cricket Board.