If your first guess for this was the climate crisis, then aap jeette hai ek crore!
I am confident that I don’t seem to be speaking an alien language since you have heard this in textbooks, either yours or of the new generation and have mastered answers to questions like what causes it and what can we do, however something or the other doesn’t ascertain climate action as a priority or practice, but don’t worry, there’s still hope for us to take immediate action.
It’s IPL season(or should I say Boards season for my CBSE and ISC fellas?), so why not connect a theme(i.e. the climate crisis) I have interest in with a theme I hardly have interest in(I mean cricket, not Boards okay!) Anyways I managed to dig up some information I found on the Internet.
In a nutshell, this is how climate change can be deemed as a threat for the sport:
- Increased temperatures decrease player performance as they get tired quickly
- Maintaining pitches gets difficult
- Fields can get washed away due to frequent rains and floods
- Grounds become hard which means that the players need to exert more energy while playing and also makes them more susceptible to injuries.
- Different weather conditions favour bowling and batting, and weather is already highly variable, this unpredictability can intensify due to climate change.
In real-life:
During September 2017, IndvsSL, Sri Lankan cricketers had to wear masks to protect themselves from the smog in Delhi. The match got halted for a while due to the same.
In April 2016, the time when 70% of Maharashtra was facing the worst drought in its history, organisers of IPL received criticism for wasting thousands of litres on pitch maintenance.
India Premier League (IPL) matches have been moved because of drought.
Heatwaves in Australia have hospitalised Test cricketers, and last year.
‘Hit For a Six – The Impact Of Climate Change On Cricket’, a report by the University of Leeds, University of Portsmouth and British Association for Sustainable Sports has identified three key risks for the game – heat, droughts and extreme storms.
Through all this information, I hope that now you have a better understanding of the gravity of the situation. So you see the consequences of Climate Change are part of the reality!
PS: I plan to continue this series, so do wait for some more articles establishing/displaying connections between the climate crisis and our favourite stuff! Comment down below if you have anything to related to the given theme, would love to learn more!