The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) decision to schedule the opening Test match of the series against South Africa between November 14-18 in New Delhi is not just irresponsible but borders on the criminal and must be opposed. Perhaps the BCCI needs a quick primer on air pollution and the irreversible harm dirty air can cause. Playing, running, exercising or any physical activity outdoors accelerates respiration rates, increasing the amount of pollutants absorbed by the lungs and significantly increasing chances of disease, disabilities and even premature death. Encouraging, and in this case, compelling players, by scheduling an international match at such a time is irresponsible at best and criminal at worst. Reducing emissions and reducing exposure to pollution are two different things. Emissions cause pollution and pollution harms health. One can reduce air pollution most efficiently by reducing emissions at source. But one can reduce exposure to pollution in several different ways. Playing outdoors in the toxic air is definitely not one of them. Dr Maria Neira of the World Health Organisation (WHO) noted that there are 72,000 scientific papers that link air pollution to health harm. A lot of that harm is irreversible. PM2.5 (particulate matter of size smaller than 2.5 microns) can bypass the body’s natural defences and enter the lungs and get absorbed in the blood, likely harming every organ and virtually every cell of the human body, according to a comprehensive global review.Even an average 10-year-old child in New Delhi knows that North India’s air pollution, which is high through the year to begin with, starts climbing sharply after the monsoons recede and temperatures start falling. This is as inevitable as the winter solstice or the festivals of Diwali or Christmas, a fact that the BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia seems singularly unaware of, if one goes by his statement that “the pollution issue doesn’t happen every year.” Over the last five years, the average AQI in November has been over 328, which is more than 20 times over the WHO limits, pushing the capital consistently in the ‘very poor’ air category. Nothing so far indicates that this will change in November 2025.The BCCI should already know that in reality, the days after Diwali are actually when Delhi’s air is the most toxic. This is when chemicals like barium, aluminium, cadmium and sulphur from fireworks add to existing micropollutants (PM2.5, dioxins and micro-plastics) that the capital’s air is already laden with. When living beings breathe this air, the harm to their bodies is worse than if they were smoking cigarettes. By scheduling the opening match three weeks after Diwali, the BCCI is forcing young cricketers to compromise their health. Unless wind blows or rain washes away Diwali’s polluted after-effects hanging low in the atmosphere and improves air quality, Delhi’s air pollution will be close to its annual peaks. Let us understand how this works. Why pollution in Delhi peaks around OctoberNorth India’s unique geography, with the Himalayas acting as a physical barrier to the north, prevents poor air from dissipating quickly, so pollution generated in the region gets trapped there. The fact that this is also the beginning of the festive season adds to the problem.This is when meteorological factors kick in. As the monsoons recede and the air becomes cooler and drier over the winter months, wind speeds come down. Temperature inversion – when lighter, warmer air rises over cooler, denser air and traps it underneath – further confines pollution to the ground level and keeps the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter high.Air pollution in North India is bad all year around. But during autumn and winter, the region’s geographical and meteorological misfortunes combine with anthropogenic factors, like firecrackers and crop residue burning, to create the perfect storm. With no rain or wind, smoke from thousands of farm fires – so large in number that satellites can see them from outer space – adds to the already high pollution load and settles closer to the ground. As a result, the northern plains together become one gigantic bowl of pollution that its residents are forced to breathe for months on end.This is the toxic air that the BCCI is expecting its cricket players to breathe as they play in November in Delhi. Once inhaled, the solid micro-particles inhaled will never leave their body. Instead, it will trigger respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological and cognitive harm or different types of cancers and other non-communicable diseases.While nothing can be done about geographical and meteorological factors, anthropogenic sources of pollution are the only factors we can hope to control. The Supreme Court is trying – by completely banning the manufacture and sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR – but any real effect depends on the implementation of this ban. This year, Diwali falls early (October 20/21) so the pollution season is also likely to begin early, unless civic sense prevails.Even if Saikia or the BCCI somehow manages to control firecrackers with the help of the courts and the cops, the months of October and November are also the time when farmers start clearing their fields of paddy residue from their rice harvest. Enormous quantities of crop stubble is burnt in a short amount of time – the quickest way in that narrow window to sow the rabi crop.In Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, farmers reportedly produce almost 50 million tonnes of straw a year and burn about four-fifths of it. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre’s (CIMMYT) more conservative estimates suggest farmers in North India burn around 23 million tonnes of straw from their rice harvests. If this enormous mass of straw is packed into 38-cm-high bales of 20 kg each, and piled on top of each other, the stack would reach from Earth’s surface to the Moon. Now imagine burning this amount of straw and inhaling those emissions. Unless Saikia and his board can singlehandedly control all these farmers, the second of two critical seasonal anthropogenic factors, there is absolutely no chance of a pollution-free November. Reducing emissions Vs reducing exposureIt is one thing to be unable to reduce emissions and thus pollution. That is a massive failure of governance, one that kills 1.7 million Indians annually from air pollution, with 40% of deaths in north India’s Indo-Gangetic plains alone. However, it is a completely different level of irresponsibility to exhort young athletes to come out on an open cricket field to play a fast-paced game and worsen their exposure to toxic pollutants. To add to this, thousands of fans will be outdoors, watching the match and breathing PM2.5 levels of over 300-350 micrograms per cubic metres, which have been the average levels in November over the past several years (barring the pandemic years).This will also be televised to millions of young children and sportspeople – that it is okay to exercise, run and play in pollution. In a country that has already normalised pollution, this would be downright dishonourable.A lesson not learnedIn 2017, when India played Sri Lanka in a Test match at Delhi in the first week of December, the average AQI in Delhi was 316, which falls in the very poor category. On day 2, Lankan pacer Lahiru Gamage, in the middle of an over, struggled to continue as he faced respiratory problems. This led to a 17-minute stoppage. It went up to 390 on December 4, day 3 of the game, forcing some of the players to take the field in masks. Another fast bowler Suranga Lakmal complained of nausea as he rushed indoors and threw up. At one point in the match, Sri Lanka had just 10 fit players in the field and oxygen cylinders were rushed to their dressing room. Despite this history, the BCCI is taking a chance.More recently, Danish badminton player Mia Blichfeldt who participated in the India Open on January 18 complained of Delhi’s terrible air quality and how sick it made her feel. “It’s 2 years in a row now that I get sick during the India Open. It’s really hard to accept that many weeks of work and preparing gets wasted because of bad conditions,” she posted after returning to Denmark, “ It’s not fair to anyone that we have to train and play in smog, birds shitting on the courts and dirt everywhere,” she said, calling these conditions “unhealthy and unacceptable.”But for most sports organisations, the commerce matters more than the health of its players. Most marathons and half marathons are held without due regard for the AQI where they are being held. Both the private and public sector organisations are equally culpable. Until a couple of years ago, The Airtel half-marathon was held in November despite the high AQI but has now been moved to a relatively cleaner period. However, the government’s own Run for Unity continues during the more polluted period around October-end. The local administration should be barred by the courts, if not the legislature or executive, to allow large-scale public sporting events to take place when AQI is over 70, and reduce this threshold every consecutive year. All public sporting activities must be linked to AQI levels, including the Sports Days (that schools usually have in the winter.)Coming back to the November Test match, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) admits that they could face a dire situation, but insist they are prepared, the Indian Express reported.“The DDCA will take all measures possible to ensure players are comfortable when they play the Test match. Also, the Arun Jaitley Stadium is located in a relatively open area with more green area around. So the air quality is better than in most other areas,” said DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma.Sharma clearly needs a lesson on how air pollution works. Air pollution has no boundaries – a gust of wind, some burning garbage – or even fireworks going off after winning a match, can quickly increase pollution levels.Sharma added that Delhi had been waiting for its turn to host a Test match. “Delhi had not been allotted a Test match for a while. The BCCI allotted us the game, so we have to go by the calendar. In November, the pollution, if at all, is less compared to December,” he said. Another case of normalising high levels of pollution.Dr Vivek Nangia, chief pulmonologist at Max Healthcare and vice chairman and head, Institute of Respiratory, Critical Care And Sleep Medicine, warned of the risks of playing a sport in November in New Delhi. “It is definitely risky and increases your chances of ill-health. Going by past data and trends, November onwards, AQI only rises. At some point, it touches peak levels. Unless something drastic is done to reduce emissions and pollution, or there is some miracle, this is bound to happen this year as well. During high pollution, we advise people not to exercise outdoors. The reason is because when you exercise, your breathing rate and depth increases. So you end up inhaling two or three times the amount of pollution than you would otherwise,” Dr Nangia added.Delhi carries the ignominy of being the world’s most polluted national capital – for the sixth straight year, according to the World Air Quality Report for 2024 released last month. Let us at least let us not carry the reputation of being uncaring of our residents, guests as well as our young athletes. Jyoti Pande Lavakare is a journalist and the author of Breathing Here is Injurious to Your Health: The Human Cost of Air Pollution.
