For the past three days Melbourne’s newspapers, TV and radio have been cracking up with obvious anxiety about this day, the first day of the Boxing-Day Test. Cricket is not the main concern; Bushfires are burning around the city, but cricket also features as 90,000 people are expected to pack in under the scorching sun.
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This begs the question: can umpires intervene if it gets too hot? The umpires will keep checking the heat level. If it gets too hot, they may even stop playing. As some of you may remember, England’s Joe Root was taken to hospital during the 2018 Ashes in Sydney with a temperature of 47.3 Celsius. Ricky Ponting was then quoted as saying: “A member of the committee, Australian great Ricky Ponting, said: “He also had the viral thing, but one or two players getting seriously ill is a dangerous precedent to ignore. “I played a game in Sharjah where it was 55 degrees and it got dangerous.”
Is this in the Cricket Act?
Existing Law 2.7.1 authorizes umpires to suspend play if the situation is unfair or dangerous.
How will they measure the discomfort level?
Cricket Australia already has extreme heat guidelines, which use the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Index to measure the level of discomfort based on weather conditions.
What is the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Index?
WBGT is a practical forecasting tool that indicates the expected heat stress on the human body when exposed to direct sunlight. It estimates the effect of temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation on humans using a combination of temperatures from three thermometers:
ðŽA wet-bulb thermometer covered with a wet cloth measures the temperature. As water evaporates from the fabric, the evaporation cools the thermometer. It shows how the human body is cooled by sweat.
ðŽ A black globe is used to measure solar radiation. Solar radiation heats the Earth and the wind blowing over it cools the Earth.
ðŽA dry bulb calculates the air temperature measured in the shade. This is the temperature you see outside your thermometer.
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