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As we head towards the end of the summer sporting calendar, Cricket Australia is facing pressing questions well beyond replacing Justin Langer as coach of the men’s national teams.
The question of climate change is the most important. There are other issues, too. Sport codes TeamsPeople around the globe are using their power to push for change. Continue readingFaster Action, Cricket Australia’s powerbrokers seem to be largely paying lip service to climate action. Many players are taking steps.
You might think that cricket and climate change are incompatible. Sadly, that’s not the case. It is difficult to play the sport during summer because of rising temperatures and more severe natural disasters. Sponsorships have been used by fossil fuel power plants for many years. “sportwash” their reputations.
It’s time for Cricket Australia to take a stronger stance on climate and turn away from fossil fuel sponsorships.
Is cricket really at-risk?
There is growing evidence of rising temperatures, bushfire smoke, cyclones and floods. Climate change is a major contributorare hurting cricket The health of its playersAround the world
Craig Golding/AAP
That’s to say nothing of sea level rise and stronger HurricanesThese could threaten to take chunks of the Caribbean’s cricket-mad islands. In June 2013, Keith Mitchell, Grenada Prime Minister, was inaugurated. called onCricket Australia and the International Cricket Council will sign on to UN efforts for harnessing sport for climate action. Cricket Australia responded by announcing that they would. look into it. We’ve heard nothing further.
Some readers might be skeptical about the idea that climate change and cricket can be combined. But if the last century of sporting history has taught us anything, it’s that high level sport and politics go hand-in-handFrom Cold War Olympics to race relations to nationalism
Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time. “code red for humanity”. It’s an exceptionally well established issue seen across atmospheric, chemical and physical patterns. It requires a huge collective effort. This requires politics. To make big changes, however, the public must be involved. Sport, which takes up so much of our attention has a vital role.
Climate action is being led by players
Many of Australia’s leading players – including men’s Test captain Pat Cummins – are not waiting. They call for immediate action to protect the sport, and the future generations of young players.
Continue reading:
Our sports stadiums must be ‘climate-proofed’
Cummins: Realisation was personal. His Penrith-based cricket club became the hottest spot on Earth in January 2020. Match cancellations were made due to smoke from the Black Summer megafires. Two years earlier, Cummins watched as English captain Joe Root was taken to hospital after battling 47℃ heat.
Cummins launched last week Cricket for Climate, which will install solar panel on club facilities across the country. He’s not alone in his activism. This is the latest wave of support from our athletes for urgent climate action. Cricket for Climate is the next step. AFL Players for Climate Action, now with 260 members. On a broader scale, there’s The Cool Down, a national climate campaign led by Emma and David Pocock which has more than 300 top athletes as backers, including cricket’s Alex Blackwell, Rachel Haynes and Sean Abbott.
Our athletes want stronger, faster action. So what’s the hold up?
Cricket Australia supports climate action via the fine work of the Sports Environmental Allianceas an organisational membership. It could do more.
While Cricket Australia has signed on to Cummins’ new initiative, it has not committed to either of Two UN initiatives, Sports for Climate Action Framework (or the Race to Zero Initiative).
You’d be hard pressed to find detail on Cricket Australia’s environmental initiatives. There’s no information about this in their Current five year planTheir Annual report.
There’s no reporting on the “holistic” sustainability strategyThe organisation stated that it was developing in 2020 due to concerns about extreme heat.
The problem of sponsorships and sportswashing
Professional sport is often flooded with lucrative sponsorships by fossil fuel companies. The main sponsor of our men’s cricket team is Alinta Energy, which owns one of Victoria’s largest coal-fired power plants, Loy Yang B.
Alinta is moving into wind solarPioneer Sail Holdings, the parent company of the company, is still the parent company. sixth highestCarbon emitting corporation in Australia as at 2019-2020
These sponsorships are on the rise Increasing scrutinyWith comparisons drawnBetween our current sponsorships of fossil fuel corporations and tobacco company sponsorships from the 1980s.
Fossil fuel companies are looking for the “soft power” of sportas a way of improving their public image and creating positive brand associations.
Andrew Brownbill/AP
What would it take for fossil fuel companies to be denied this social license? Cricket managers don’t have to look far at all. There’s an excellent example at Rod Laver Arena, just over the train tracks from Cricket Australia’s head office.
Tennis Australia caused shockwaves in sport with their shocking announcement in January Cancelling its multi-year sponsorship with their “official natural gas partner” Santos ahead of this year’s Australian Open. The cancellation came after a long campaign targeting “sportswashing”.
Continue reading:
Sportswashing: How mining and energy companies sponsor your favorite sports to improve their image
This sudden shift is a positive. This means that the comparison to tobacco companies is now more credible. Remember that tobacco advertising was ubiquitous in the 1980s. As part of a larger push to reduce the harm caused by smoking, Australia gradually denied tobacco companies the social licence offered by advertising and sponsorships. A similar effort is needed to encourage a wholesale switch away from fossil-fuels.
Cricket Australia’s question is now simple. How long will it wait at the climate crossroads, where it is caught between the health and well-being of the planet and the fossil fuel interests its sponsors? The players aren’t waiting. Pat Cummins, and many other players, are leading the way to a safer future of cricket and all those who love it. It’s time for their national governing body to follow them.
