Championing Innovation, Sustainability & Access in Cricket Conference

How can cricket respond to climate change, embrace more sustainable materials and products, reduce waste, and become more accessible? Championing Innovation, Sustainability & Access in Cricket aims to bring together researchers, designers, sustainability practitioners, cricket stakeholders and others interested in the future of the game for a one-day conference at St John’s College, Cambridge. The event will explore how innovation in materials, equipment, design, technology and infrastructure can help cricket respond to environmental and social challenges while opening up new possibilities for the game. The event is hosted by Dr Darshil Shah (University of Cambridge) and Prof Martin Charter (The Centre for Sustainable Design ©, University for the Creative Arts), with the Platform for Accelerating Sustainable Innovation in Cricket (PASIC). The programme will open with James Cameron, Non-Executive Chair of the PCA, discussing cricket in the context of climate change and biodiversity. It will also showcase two UKRI/AHRC-funded research projects on engineered bamboo cricket bats (CamBoom) and circular design of cricket gear with place-based circularity initiatives (2C). Following lunch and networking, there will be a series of short talks spanning cricket-ball aerodynamics, recycled willow bats, sustainable stadiums and sports buildings, climate impacts and climate justice, historic cricket technology, as well as media and player perspectives. Weather permitting, the day will conclude at the nets at St John’s Playing Fields for demonstrations, where participants will have the opportunity to try the new bamboo cricket bats, explore vegan leather cricket pads, and see a reconstruction of John Venn’s historic bowling machine in action. The event is intended to encourage discussion and connections across the cricket ecosystem. Whether you are a researcher, player, governing body, manufacturer, designer, sustainability practitioner, journalist or simply interested in the future of cricket, we hope you will join us for a day of ideas, demonstrations and conversation. Places are limited.