This year, Saudi Arabia's foray into global sports has upended professional golf, upended the football industry, and earned the kingdom the 2034 World Cup. It's now time for cricket. According to Bloomberg News, Saudi Arabia has proposed investing up to $5 billion in the Indian Premier League, cricket's most popular and lucrative event.
It's a tempting offer, but one that the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the IPL's owner, should decline if the sport's future is important to them.
Climate change is the issue. Cricket, more than virtually any other sport, has already been impacted by the high heat, precipitation, and storms linked with global warming. The ramifications for cricket will be grave unless substantial changes are made to emissions and the sport. The Saudi government is the wrong partner for the IPL and global cricket to achieve these aims because it actively supports increased fossil fuel use.
It may appear trivial to be concerned about whether sports will survive climate change. It isn't. It is a trillion-dollar industry that employs millions of people directly and indirectly. They give billions of people exercise, amusement, and camaraderie. A world in which sports are more difficult to play, watch and enjoy due to a degraded environment is a less affluent, healthy and pleasant one in which to live.
Simply ask India. It has had the honor of hosting the Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial tournament similar to the more well-known football World Cup, for the last month. It should be a proud time for the cricket-crazed country, where informal matches sprout up at all hours of the day in parks, alleys, and fields, and the sport's stars are among the country's biggest celebrities.
Unfortunately, choking air pollution has forced the cancellation of practices in numerous host cities, including Delhi, and forced several players to rely on inhalers. It's not just an embarrassment for India; it might also jeopardize its bid for the 2036 Olympic Games.
Even if the government made a more concerted effort to reduce air pollution, the climate-related concerns confronting South and Southeast Asia - home to 2.6 billion people and the majority of the world's cricket fans - are only getting started. Record heat has burned the regions - from Pakistan to Thailand - during the previous two years, and the heat waves are expected to persist.
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