Vitamin D Guidelines 2017: Publication from the English Cricket Board Vitamin D Working Party

These guidelines have been assembled by an ECB Medical Panel comprising appointed Chief Medical Officers of the English Cricket Board and certain 1st class counties. Within this group we have been able to call upon specialist knowledge from Professor Cathy Speed and been able to refer to similar guidelines published by clinicians of sister sporting organisations such as the English Institute of Sport (Newton, 2013). Members of the advisory commitee were: Dr Jon Houghton, Prof Bill Ribbans, Dr Tham, Wedatilake, Dr Nick Peirce, Chris Rosimus.

In addition, recent government recommendations have resulted in a significant reinforcement of the necessity to consider vitamin D checks and supplementation across the whole population. The key development to note is for maintenance dosing for cricketers remaining in the UK over the winter period. Already cricketers centrally contracted to the ECB and a number of 1st class counties screen serum Vitamin D levels albeit often on an ad hoc basis. It is hoped that going forward these findings will be part of each player’s medical profile and will allow long term monitoring and analysis of the effect of maintaining adequate Vitamin D levels on various aspects of the player’s health.