Air pollution at Cricket World Cup in India sparks player health fears

The players’ union is to begin lobbying for the game to take pollution and extreme heat conditions seriously after a World Cup in India that has seen teams struggle with air quality and smog.

Rob Lynch, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, is in India and held talks with his counterpart, Tom Moffat, of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (Fica), the international players’ union, about what they can do to ensure enough safety protocols are in place to protect teams.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cancelled a practice session in Delhi before their World Cup match this week because of the air quality and smog, and there were fears at one stage the match would be called off

Joe Root described breathing in Mumbai as “eating air” and Ben Stokes has been seen using his inhaler.

India captain, Rohit Sharma, described the air in Delhi as “not ideal and everyone knows that,” which for an Indian cricketer is a critical public stance to take.

The International Cricket Council treats air pollution and extreme heat the same as weather conditions such as rain and it is in the power of the umpires and match referee to make a decision at any given moment.

The thick smog in Delhi has worsened since the start of the tournament and was rated by Swiss group IQAir as 80 times above the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit.

Cricket is vulnerable to changing weather conditions more than almost any other sport because it is played in summertime and hot conditions.

Cricket is now a night-time sport apart from at Test level to beat temperatures during the day. Most World Cup matches not involving India have seen crowds increase once the heat of the day has eased.

There is a Fica meeting in Singapore next week and Lynch hopes to gain the support of his colleagues from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa to formulate a plan to take to the ICC.