Are rains and climate change wreaking havoc with cricket?

India’s upcoming tour of England has many wary eyes affixed on it, though the IPL itself has faced the stop-start irritation that rains bring.

According to sportsgazette.co.uk which meticulously pored over matches recorded on ESPNcricinfo, the UK, which is notorious for its fickle weather, has coped it’s worst in last two seasons. “Recent years have brought particularly unpredictable conditions. In both 2023 and 2024, more than a third of men’s and women’s international white-ball matches in England and Wales were affected by rain,” the sportsgazette revealed.

It went on to add that since 2000, almost a fifth of all international white-ball matches in England and Wales have been disrupted by rain. The stats are dire and depressing even by the glum English standards: of the 739 matches played, 40 had reduced overs, 43 were decided by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method, 33 ended with no result, and 26 were abandoned without a ball bowled.

“Climate change is causing more frequent and severe weather extremes, from heatwaves to intense storms and heavy rainfall. Rising temperatures allow the air to hold more moisture, leading to heavier downpours, while prolonged droughts leave the soil unable to absorb intense rainfall,” the news site noted.

Quoting Gary Barwell, head groundsman at Edgbaston, the website drew a grim picture of how “heavy rains” were messing with the summer game. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that more rain is the issue, but when it does rain, it’s more intense,” Barwell told the Sports Gazette. “Years ago, you’d get the occasional April shower, but now we tend to get heavier rain over a shorter period. It’s definitely a changed weather system rather than just one specific shift.”

Barwell lamented the very loss of seasons which immediately showed up in cricket. “We seem to have lost the seasons – that’s the biggest thing for me. We get extremes now. When it’s hot, it’s red hot; when it’s cold, it can be really cold; and when it rains, it pours.”

Last county summer, three games at Edgbaston were abandoned, which was more than 10% of all matches that summer. For comparison, no year in England and Wales had seen more abandoned games, except for 2019 – the notorious World Cup summer – when the rate was lower at 7.6%, but when the biggest white ball match turned farcical with a rueful mix of rains and rules. ‘Incidentally, that World Cup made headlines as an alarmingly rainy affair. The tournament saw four washouts – the most in a single edition,’ sportsgazette wrote.

Meanwhile, Worcestershire County Cricket Club has an immediate disaster at hand: Their home ground, New Road, has long been vulnerable to flooding, but half of the matches played there were rain-affected, and after flooding seven times over the 2023/24 winter, the club is now considering relocating, sportsgazette said.
“The longer a match lasts, the more vulnerable it is to weather. As the dataset shows, only 11.2% of T20Is were rain-affected, compared to 22.9% of ODIs,” the piece added.

However, every major Test series has had days lost to rains – at times unseasonal – changing the dynamic of the sport rendering it unpredictable beyond mildly entertaining values.

The Climate Coalition’s 2018 Game Changer report, as per Earth.org said, “of all the major pitch sports, cricket will be the hardest hit by climate change.”

High temperatures that precede rains have also been detrimental. ‘During last year’s men’s Cricket World Cup in India, extreme heat and elevated humidity affected 20 out of the 47 matches. “It is not ideal and everyone knows that,” said Indian captain Rohit Sharma, referring to the challenging weather conditions,’ Earth.org wrote.

Climate change-related water shortages and droughts are distressing national cricket authorities and governments from India to South Africa. ‘Indeed, a standard cricket stadium requires 270,000–300,000 litres per week to keep the ground in a healthy and safe condition. In the summer months, the amount is significantly higher,’ the report added.

Last year’s T20 World Cup won by India, witnessed extreme weather events with many rained off matches. Earth.org quoted that in September 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both category 5 hurricanes, devastated parts of the Eastern Caribbean., causing significant damage to 27 cricket grounds. Leading insurer Lloyds of London reported a US$1.1 billion net loss from Hurricane Maria and a $2.1 billion net loss from Hurricane Irma due to the extraordinary level of damage incurred.

“The facilities were damaged – a lot. Some playing fields are no longer of use at this stage because of soil erosion, water damage. There are some back up and running where we can play cricket. There is cricket going on but it’s not on a large scale. Some players migrated because they suffered damage to their house – it was difficult and it has impacted every aspect of life,” Earth.org quoted Liam Sebastian, a first-class cricketer for the Windward Islands within the West Indies, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

“Climate change is an existential threat for the West Indian community as the team seeks to re-establish itself at the pinnacle of the cricketing pyramid,” said Keith C. Mitchell, the Prime Minister of Grenada, as per the climate report.

Earth.org said the International Cricket Council (ICC) was yet to join the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, which FIFA is part of. ‘To ensure a sustainable future and protect cricket players around the world, it is time for the ICC to develop a comprehensive climate safety strategy for its member countries’ the report concluded.