In a world of climate chaos, with heatwaves frying southern Europe, north America and China, sport cannot escape what the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has now called “the era of global boiling”. Cricket is no exception, its heartbeat devastated in 2022 as deadly spring heat in South Asia was followed by flooding in Pakistan which killed more than 1,700 people and displaced 7.9 million.
Cricket’s relationship with this climate emergency is explored at the BD:Festival with the world premiere of Cricket Green at Bradford City Park on Friday night. Commissioned by the Bradford Producing Hub and Bradford Council. before the city’s crowning as UK City of Culture for 2025, the Balbir Singh Dance Company’s new work tells the story of a cricket match between Team Earth and Team Climate.
Cricket Green was inspired when the BSDC’s artistic director, Balbir Singh, read the Hit for Six report (2020), which explored the impact of climate change on cricket. Singh was born in India but grew up in Bradford, attending the Northern School of Contemporary Dance as well as maintaining a huge passion for sport. He founded the BSDC in 1998 and in 2012 was commissioned to create a piece for the London Cultural Olympiad. The result was Syncronised, which involved swimmers as well as dancers and was performed in water. The dance company has explored the dance-sport crossover ever since.
Cricket Green is a fusion of music, theatre, contemporary western and traditional Indian dance, performed by an inter-cultural troupe. A climate booth manned by young people will open after the performances. The piece explores what might happen if a game which binds communities together gets disrupted by the changing climate, but it remains a celebration of cricket and nature.
“Cricket Green for me is a personal work allowing me to delve deeply into what it means to be human through our bond and connection with nature,” says Singh.
“For me it has been about how the universal appeal of cricket has allowed a fresh way of thinking about and understanding our relationship with the environment, its value and importance. To allow people to discover new ways of bonding with nature and growing in confidence in our environmental DNA.
“Through the work we hope to allow audiences new ways of thinking about how they can value and connect with nature, and at the same time understand the impact of the climate crisis through a creative lens, which may lead to small individual changes that together can lead to larger initiatives.”
Cricket Green will also be performed at Bradford City Park on Saturday, and excerpts will be performed at Middleton Park, Leeds, on Sunday 6 August and Worcester Mela on Sunday 13 August
