Introduction: Increasing evidence suggests that playing competitive cricket produces many health benefits which include endurance, stamina, balance and physical fitness. Even though cricket is one of the oldest organized sports, there are very few studies on the association between playing competitive cricket and pulmonary functions. Aims and Objectives: To study the pulmonary functions in competitive cricket players and to compare the same with matched sedentary control group. Materials and Methods: In this study pulmonary functions such as FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, MVV, PEFR parameters were studied in 48 competitive cricket players in the age group of 18- 26 years. These parameters were compared with matched apparently normal healthy sedentary medical students using unpaired t test. Results: In our study significant increase was observed in pulmonary function parameters of competitive cricketers than sedentary controls. Competitive cricketers had higher mean of percentage value of Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) (P=0.0122), Forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) (P=0.0129), Maximum Voluntary Ventilation (MVV) (P=0.0249) and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) (P=0.0119) than controls. However there was no significant difference in FEV1/FVC ratio (P=0.3404) between the study groups. Conclusion: The current study has shown that, there is significant positive relationship between playing cricket and pulmonary function in healthy young men. The improvement in pulmonary function could be due to increased strength of respiratory muscles. 

Keywords: Cricket; FEV1; FVC; PEFR; Pulmonary function.