By Jon Culley, ECB Reporters Network
Cricket has always had a love-hate relationship with the weather.
The perfect sport for warm days and balmy evenings can quickly feel like the most frustrating game ever invented when rain has players and spectators scurrying for shelter and ground staff rushing to put the covers in place.
In recent times, though, that relationship has evolved into something with implications rather more serious than the occasional inconvenience, with extreme weather events associated with climate change having an impact on cricket with growing frequency.
Droughts, wildfires, extreme heatwaves, hurricanes and catastrophic floods all pose an existential threat to the game in some parts of the world. It is a crisis to which cricket is alive and taking steps to combat.
In the UK, few venues are playing a more prominent role than Edgbaston, and spectators at today’s Vitality Blast Finals Day will be doing their bit in a host of different ways in the stadium’s ambition to become a net-zero venue by 2030.
That might be by drinking from a reusable e-cup or recyclable can, eating vegetables grown on site in the Edgbaston garden or snacks sold in compostable packaging, travelling to the game by bicycle or on National Express shuttle buses rather than by car, and disposing of rubbish in the stadium via multiple recycling bins.
Alongside Lord’s and the Kia Oval, Edgbaston has appointed a full-time sustainability manager in Lydia Carrington, who was the driving force behind turning last September’s IT20 between England Men and New Zealand Men into the Go Green Game, the UK’s first sustainability-focused international cricket match, which cut the carbon emissions normally generated by such an event by more than a third.
“On Finals Day, we will be following on from what we did in our Go Green Game last year, which showcased what we are doing in our Edgbaston for Sustainability Strategy,” Carrington says.
“We know from the data we have gathered that 97% of our carbon footprint on match days comes from emissions generated by travelling to the game, from waste created and from the production of the food and drink people consume, but as a result of what we did for the Go Green Game we achieved a 33% reduction in emissions.
“We didn’t want that to be a one-off, we wanted to create a legacy from which we would continue to grow so on Finals Day there will be a lot of similar things to those that were part of the Go Green Game.”
Fans who catch the 501 shuttle bus running from Birmingham New Street station to the ground also get a discount on food and drink. Or hop on a West Midlands Cycle Hire ebike to travel around the city.
The electric Dennis Mowers that ground staff used for the Go Green Game have now become a permanent feature, saving an estimated seven tonnes of carbon dioxide a year as well as £4,500 in fuel costs.
“The impact of climate change has become an increasingly important factor in decision making at Edgbaston in everyday working life as well as on match days,” Carrington says. “Research has shown that cricket is likely to be one of the sports most affected by climate change.
“We’ve seen that impact locally with the floods across the region and the amount of cricket that clubs have lost as a result, while the very hot summer a couple of years ago meant that players who weren’t used to extreme heat were having to play in 40C, and spectators and event staff had to cope with it too.
“As a venue, at Edgbaston we believe in doing the right things and if we want to continue to work in the industry and enjoy watching the sport that we love, we think it is so important for us to get the message across on days like today about what steps we can all take to help make that possible.”