Juheb Jhony:

Cricket entered my life long before I understood words like climate change, carbon emissions, or global warming. It came through sunburnt afternoons in narrow lanes, borrowed bats, improvised stumps, and endless arguments over whether the ball was out or not. It came through radios playing commentary, televisions drawing neighbours into shared excitement, and a sense that cricket belonged to everyone.

Today, that familiar world feels increasingly fragile. Climate change is no longer an abstract environmental concern; it is actively reshaping the conditions under which cricket is played. The sport I loved most since childhood is now being disrupted, endangered, and slowly hollowed out by rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, polluted air, and environmental collapse.

Cricket has always been a test of stamina. Long spells, extended innings, and hours under the open sky are integral to its character. But climate change is pushing this endurance beyond safe human limits. In 2025, the scale of heat-related stress in cricket became impossible to ignore. Studies and monitoring reports showed that 27 professional matches were played under “extreme caution” heat conditions, while 9 matches crossed into the “danger” category, where the risk of heatstroke and serious medical emergencies was high.

What is striking is that most of these matches were not abandoned. Unlike rain, heat rarely forces official stoppages. Instead, it silently normalises unsafe conditions. Players hydrate more, medical staff remain alert, and play continues, as if resilience alone can overcome physics and biology. Over time, this silent acceptance risks long-term health damage, shortened careers, and exclusion of those whose bodies cannot endure extreme heat.

For cricket-playing nations in South Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa, this raises a troubling question: can cricket continue as an outdoor, all-day sport in a rapidly warming world?

Rain has always been part of cricket’s folklore. Earlier, it meant delays, revised targets, and dramatic returns to play. Today, climate change has transformed rain into a tournament-altering force. The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 was a telling example. Six matches were washed out due to rain, including five matches at Colombo’s R. Premadasa Stadium alone.

These washouts were not neutral events. They changed qualification scenarios, disrupted momentum, and undermined competitive fairness. For women’s cricket, already fighting for space, sponsorship, and attention, such losses are particularly damaging. Fewer matches mean fewer stories, fewer heroes, and fewer opportunities to build public connection.

Climate change, here, intersects with inequality. Those with fewer resources suffer more when weather disrupts play, reinforcing existing hierarchies within the sport.

If heat is the invisible crisis and rain the visible one, air pollution delivered the most alarming warning. In December 2025, the India vs South Africa T20I in Lucknow was abandoned without a single ball being bowled due to dense smog and hazardous air quality.

This moment should have shaken cricket’s conscience. For the first time, an international match was cancelled because the air itself was unsafe to breathe. It revealed how climate change, urban pollution, and governance failures converge to make outdoor sport impossible.

This moment should have shaken cricket’s conscience. For the first time, an international match was cancelled because the air itself was unsafe to breathe. It revealed how climate change, urban pollution, and governance failures converge to make outdoor sport impossible.

Cricket’s infrastructure is also under strain. Droughts in Australia and South Africa make water-intensive pitch maintenance increasingly unsustainable. Flooding and prolonged wet spells in England and South Asia damage outfields and shorten playing seasons. Groundskeepers now work against extremes, too little water one year, too much the next.

This raises ethical questions as well. Should vast amounts of water be used to maintain elite pitches when surrounding communities struggle for drinking water? As climate stress intensifies, cricket will have to confront its own environmental footprint.

The ability to adapt will not be equal. Wealthier boards may invest in hybrid pitches, covered stadiums, and advanced drainage systems. Poorer nations, smaller associations, and grassroots clubs may not. Climate change threatens to turn cricket into an increasingly exclusive sport, accessible only to those with resources to climate-proof it.

Cricket’s true strength lies not just in international stadiums but in everyday life, in school grounds, neighbourhood parks, and open fields. But extreme heat, polluted air, and unpredictable weather are making outdoor play unsafe. When children cannot play freely, the future of the sport weakens at its roots.

If cricket becomes something only watched on screens and rarely played outdoors, it loses its social depth. A game that once built community risks becoming distant, interrupted, and fragile.

The warning signs are already clear:

• 27 matches in 2025 played under extreme heat caution
• 9 matches under medically dangerous heat conditions
• Six Women’s World Cup matches washed out by rain
• One international T20I abandoned due to toxic smog

These are not isolated incidents. They are signals from a planet under stress.

Cricket boards can reschedule matches, shorten formats, or adjust calendars. But these are temporary responses. The real challenge lies beyond sport, in climate action, clean air policies, sustainable urban planning, and global responsibility for emissions.

Cricket has always mirrored society. Today, it mirrors a world struggling to manage its ecological limits. If the game I loved since childhood is to survive, climate change must be treated as a central sporting issue, not an external inconvenience.

The choice before us is stark. Either we act to protect the environment that cricket depends on, or we accept a future where the sport becomes increasingly unsafe, unequal, and unplayable. I refuse to believe that a game which taught generations patience, resilience, and collective joy should quietly disappear because we failed to care for the world that made it possible.

फोटो आभार : गूगल