Fears SCG Test against New Zealand will go up in smoke
Cricket Australia is preparing for the possibility that smoke from the bushfire crisis may affect the Test series.
Cricket Australia is preparing for the possibility that smoke from the bushfire crisis and extreme heat may see play suspended or abandoned in the biggest Tests of the summer and is particularly concerned about the New Year’s match at the SCG.
The Adelaide Strikers needed to only bowl four more balls for the game against the Sydney Thunder to be complete, but umpires deemed it too dangerous to continue after a wind change enveloped the ground in smoke.
At least two players sought medical treatment after the game as a result of the smoke, including Peter Siddle who has been named in the squad for the Boxing Day Test. Players on both sides were wearing armbands for two volunteer firemen killed last week.
Play was close to being suspended in a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG between Queensland and NSW earlier this month, but concluded in conditions players described as “shocking” and “worse than India”.
New Zealand cancelled the first day of a tour match in Melbourne on Friday because of “extreme high temperatures” and numerous games were suspended or abandoned across Sydney on Saturday. At least three first grade matches were delayed because of smoke from nearby fires. The local T20 competition was cancelled in Adelaide on Friday night when the temperature hit 46C.
Heat forced organisers to delay and reduce the overs bowled in at least one game during the Under-19 Championship in Perth earlier this month and the number of drink breaks to be increased.
“I worry about the way we are rating the air quality and whether we need to really sit down and nail down what is OK and what’s not,” Thunder captain Callum Ferguson said. “Speaking to (Thunder batsman) Usman Khawaja, they played a whole day of Shield cricket (in Sydney) a week-and-a-half ago in conditions he said were far worse than what we experienced on Saturday night.
“So we really do need to sit down and have a calculated look at exactly what is OK to play in and what’s not because after that Shield game ‘Ussie’ said he was having headaches and mild dizzy spells for two-to-three days after.”
Increasing temperatures and the effect of players has been an issue in cricket in recent years — in 2018 Joe Root had to retire hurt and was hospitalised with dehydration from the combination of a stomach bug and the heat on a day when Sydney hit 43.7C — but the bushfire crisis this summer is new territory. Cricket Australia is a world leader with its heat strategy, which was put in place last year and is scrambling now to adapt to health issues caused by pollution from the bushfire crisis.
A “mega fire” seven times the size of Singapore has been burning northwest of Sydney since late October, but the city is also being affected by smoke from fires to the west and south.
CA’s sports science and medical arm has compiled guidelines regarding air quality and play.
“Cricket Australia, alongside relevant state cricket associations and BBL clubs, is closely monitoring the air quality and visibility in areas impacted by bushfires,” a spokesperson said. “In line with International Cricket Council, Australian Institute of Sport and relevant government guidelines, we are maintaining vigilance on the ever-changing air quality in locations where games are impacted by poor air quality. As the safety of players, fans and staff is our number one priority, the guidelines state what needs to be measured and looked for. We will constantly monitor the situation and be prepared on the ground in the case of any circumstance, as we know conditions change very quickly in these scenarios.
“At BBL games played in areas impacted by bushfires, a discussion and assessment about air quality will be added to the pre-match medical briefing hosted onsite 60 minutes prior to the scheduled match time.”
Local match officials have been told that for club cricket the danger zone is an air quality index above 200 (a “hazardous” rating). It is a conservative approach because players are not monitored by medical staff. For first-class and international cricket an AQI of more than 300 is the trigger.
The problem with the system is the monitoring stations are not necessarily at the ground and take some time to update. Doctors can call for play to be stopped if players display signs of distress, while visibility issues are the domain of umpires. Sydney’s air quality has been rated “hazardous” on 28 days since November. Some areas in Canberra recorded an AQI level of almost 1400 on Saturday.
Light meters do not measure visibility when smoke is a factor.
BBL chief executive Alistair Dobson said organisers had been on alert since the Women’s BBL final was held in the middle of Brisbane’s bushfire crisis last month.
“A lot of work has been done in the past four or five weeks across Cricket Australia and the BBL clubs, across high performance, our medical staff, cricket operations and even our security team to make sure we had the right processes in place and people knew what would happen if this scenario occurred,” he said. “We had our fingers crossed it wouldn’t but obviously on Saturday night conditions changed pretty quickly.”
NSW’s Steve O’Keefe said the conditions during the Sheffield Shield match earlier this month were the worst he’d experienced.
“That air quality was shocking. The doctor was all over it and speaking to us about it, and the fact the game wasn’t going to go all day was considered, but in the future they need to look at it because it’s not healthy — it’s toxic,” he said. “That was far worse than India. It got to the stage we weren’t going to come off for quality, it was more about visibility. It was getting hard to pick the ball up.”
Strikers batsman Jon Wells scored a half century on Saturday night before the wind changed and the oval was enveloped in a thick blanket of smoke.
“The first innings was OK, then it came over pretty quick and all of a sudden it was very bad,” he said.
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