We have witnessed abandonment of cricket matches due to poor light, rain or even angry spectators. However, one due to poor air seems news – perhaps a sad reality of the times that we live in. Not surprisingly, it comes from a city that has been gasping for blue sky and clean air.

India’s Virat Kohli celebrates his double century against Sri Lanka during the second day of the third cricket test match at Feroz Shah Kotla, in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI
India’s Virat Kohli celebrates his double century against Sri Lanka during the second day of the third cricket test match at Feroz Shah Kotla, in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI
Delhi is facing a pollution crisis and that is not a yorker for anyone. The big question that the Feroz Shah Kotla episode presents is – Under the given conditions, is it wise enough to have Delhi host sporting events? There is not a clear answer to this but let us help ourselves a bit and do some calculations.

As Virat Kohli completed a double century on Sunday, particulate levels at the nearby ITO station were also clocking 200 microgram/m3, or “Very Poor”. When engaged in outdoor exercise or physical exertion, we inhale larger volumes of air. Even at an easy jogging pace of 8 km/h, intake rates are more than seven times the intake rate while sitting. While walking at a pace of about 5 km/h, the volumes inhaled are thrice as much while sitting. More the volume of polluted air inhaled, more the particulates that enter your lungs.

A fast bowler, bowling 15 overs over the course of the six playing hours, would have inhaled four times as much air, and therefore four times as much particulate matter as the spectators sitting in the ground. This is the conservative assumption that their intake rates were at the easy jogging level while bowling each over, and at the walking rate otherwise while fielding. The fielders inhaled more than thrice as much particulates as the spectators…