Do we need to remind the BCCI that a Test in Delhi in November is a bad idea

Cliff Notes – Do we need to remind the BCCI that a Test in Delhi in November is a bad idea

• Guwahati will become the 17th Test venue in India in the last decade, while Delhi’s air quality poses significant health risks during November, with AQI readings often exceeding 400.
• Historical precedents show that matches in Delhi have been adversely affected by pollution, with players experiencing severe health issues, including vomiting and the use of oxygen cylinders during games.
• The BCCI has the opportunity to relocate the upcoming Test match to a venue with better air quality, prioritising the health and safety of players and spectators.

Do we need to remind the BCCI that a Test in Delhi in November is a bad idea?

When India and South Africa play their second Test there later this year, Guwahati will become the 17th venue to have hosted a Test in India in the last 10 years. It means India has 16 active Test venues that all have excellent facilities except for Green Park in Kanpur, which, last year, struggled to get cricket going even after rain stopped. It won’t happen, but even if we assume Kanpur is blacklisted, the BCCI had 15 options for the first Test of that South Africa series, starting November 14.

It takes special apathy and lack of duty of care to still go ahead and schedule this Test in Delhi, where the poor air quality becomes a health emergency in November. On the Air Quality Index (AQI), a reading of over 300 is considered “very poor” and over 400 “severe”. India’s official AQI meters are not designed to measure air that gets so bad that it reaches four digits. On November 18 last year, the AQI officially reached 999. IQAir, a Swiss company that measures air quality, measured Delhi’s AQI on that day at 1600, according to the New York Times. It resulted in lockdown-like conditions. People were advised to leave home only in emergency. Schools were shut and outdoor activity barred even when they reopened.

The situation in recent years has been so bad that 500 is considered a good day in November when the unholy combination of industrial pollution, vehicular fumes, construction activity, post-Diwali firecracker fumes and the burning of post-harvest stubble in neighbouring states is at play. Delhi’s landlocked geography and unfavourable wind directions make it the perfect storm.

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It is pertinent to avoid athletic activity in that air because the major air pollutant is PM 2.5, particulate matter that is less than 2.5mm in diameter. When we strain during athletic activity, our breathing gets deeper and more rapid, thus eliminating any chance of avoiding inhaling PM 2.5. The Central Pollution Control Board warned in 2017, when the AQI didn’t reach four figures, that running a marathon in those conditions could deposit two tablespoonfuls of toxic ash in your lungs. A Test match is no marathon but it is still elite high-performance athletic activity.

To be fair, no Indian should need a refresher on this health emergency because it happens every year. The BCCI shouldn’t need reminding either. Here is a quick timeline of how cricket has been affected in Delhi in the last 10 years.

In the first week of November 2016, two Ranji Trophy matches were called off as players “could not even stand outside”.

Sri Lanka players put on masks to deal with the pollution in Delhi BCCI

In 2017, Sri Lanka took the field wearing masks in a Test match interrupted by air pollution. The players kept going off the field and vomiting. There were oxygen cylinders in the dressing room. Mohammed Shami and Suranga Lakmal vomited on the field.

The ODI between India and Australia in March 2019 went off well, but later that year, on November 3, two Bangladesh players vomited on the field. The then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly tweeted to thank the two teams for playing the game “under tuff [sic] conditions”. ESPNcricinfo understands Ganguly, who had been elected BCCI president only a month earlier, privately expressed displeasure at the scheduling when he read this on November 1.

The 2023 ODI World Cup featured four Delhi matches in October, which went off fine, but the one match in November nearly didn’t happen. This being an ICC event, there was at least a chance of the match being called off. Bangladesh skipped practice.

And yet, here we are. Of all the gin joints in the world. Three weeks after Diwali. Another Test match that will expose not just the players but also spectators, who are otherwise warned to not leave home unless in an emergency, to life-shortening air pollution.

The last time Delhi got a match in November, sources in the BCCI said off the record that matches are allotted to state associations on rotational basis, and that the BCCI can’t cross members who constitute the body in the first place. That doesn’t even begin to explain how Ahmedabad, which hosted England in February 2025, will get two more matches later in the same year.

If this Test in Delhi does go ahead, India will have hosted only 14 internationals (two in Ahmedabad) between two matches in Delhi. Even if you restrict it to just Tests, there will have only been 14 India home Tests since the last one in Delhi. By comparison, Eden Gardens last got a Test in November 2019, which is 23 Tests ago. Ahmedabad will have hosted four Tests between the last Eden Gardens Test and the one it is scheduled to host in October against West Indies.

These, though, are internal BCCI machinations that a private body should be free to partake in. Even the dismal treatment of fans in India can be seen as the BCCI enjoying the favourable end of the demand-supply stick. The wellbeing of players and spectators, though, is another matter. cricket South Africa (CSA) will not protest, or cannot protest. There is no player union in India. The South African union can only make an indirect, unthreatening request. “Player well-being must always be the primary concern,” it told ESPNcricinfo. “All stakeholders need to recognise this and act accordingly.”

The only entity that can act on this is the BCCI. There are still eight months to go. There is still time to do the right thing and move this Test elsewhere.