It feels like there is a huge potential for kit to be re-used in cricket, where interest often wanes after a season or as children move from softball to hard-ball cricket, and as kit is outgrown from summer to summer. This would both help the game become more accessible to those on a lower income – something highlighted recently with stories of families being charged fees running into hundreds of pounds to access county pathways – and feed into the circular economy. This might be something as simple as trousers being passed on, to the more complicated process of helmet grills being reused, or cricket nets repurposed. Professionals are often shining examples of this, mending and reusing their favourite bats until they fall to pieces. Charter hopes that cricket can plug into to the sort of work pioneered by Play it Again Sport, a small Welsh social enterprise that tries to ensure that all sports equipment gets reused and nothing goes to landfill. Cricket doesn’t always help itself. There was a test case in 2019 when Gray-Nicholls produced an up-cycled pair of batting gloves made from production waste – and cricket’s man of the moment, Sam Billings, wore them for a couple of warmup matches. The ICC then banned him from wearing them for the white-ball series against New Zealand because they contravened a pedantic rule on colour. With a dearth of available data to work with, the CfSD did some exploratory research on the environmental impact of five pieces of cricket equipment. The results led it to believe that it would be worth manufacturers investing in a vegan leather for cricket balls, something that the former Australia cricketer Jason Gillespie, a prominent vegan, has already called for. It also suggests investigation into possible alternatives to willow, with studies into the viability of bamboo cricket bats already under way by researchers at Cambridge University. Also tucked inside the report is a fascinating paragraph on the manufacture of bats and balls in the UK: sadly, the industry is on its knees. The Heritage Craft Foundation’s May 2021 Red List of Endangered Crafts records the manufacture of hand-stitched cricket balls in the UK as extinct. The UK’s cricket bat manufacturing industry is nearly as sickly, classed as an “endangered species.” With many of the practitioners heading towards retirement age, there may well be an opportunity here for the ECB, or even the PCA, to sponsor apprenticeships. With the help of BASIS, the CfSD has set up the PASIC website as a forum for information and to stimulate discussion around the sustainability of cricket equipment and clothing. Future projects plan to focus more closely on the circular economy and cricket clothing. During the process of compiling the report, Charter spoke to a number of past and present players, including the former South African opener Darryl Cullinan. He believes that there is a real interest in making the industry more sustainable, but that it will need both quality research to assess the environmental and social awareness in the sector and action from the game’s governing bodies. Good luck with that. Quote of the week “If only a small terracotta urn were awarded for passing the buck: England would win it hands down” – Wisden editor Lawrence Booth gets stuck in. Breach’s journey to small-screen host Anyone tuning into the women’s Ashes coverage on BT Sport will have spotted a new face, at least to cricket fans. Jules Breach first took the chair for the opening Twenty20 – a hearty Aussie run-chase – alongside the ever-excellent Lydia Greenway. Breach fell in love with sport as a child and played everything going with her older brother and cousins. She was an excellent tennis player and played competitively till she was 16 but, not quite good enough to play professionally, she turned her focus to the media. She found her way to broadcasting through a spell on a shopping channel, and an afternoon sports show on local radio in Brighton while earning some extra money as a hostess at Sussex CCC – which eventually led to her working on player testimonials. Then came a break on Premier League productions: and she has been working in football for the past six years, both as a reporter and behind a presenting desk. The Women’s Ashes is the first time she has broadcast cricket. “It is something fairly new to me, growing up I tended to go with my brothers and dad and watch men’s sport,” she says. “So leading up to the start of the series there was a lot for me to learn, and I’m really passionate about doing it justice and making it accessible both to established cricket lovers and a new audience. And I’m really enjoying it, I love the multi-format concept.” |