Contrary to most expectations, the Australia-India Test series is proving to be an absolute cracker, with the teams locked together 1-1 going into the decider that begins on Saturday in Dharamsala.
Australian commercial sponsors of sport must always be delighted when the results are close, wherever they are played. Excitement means more viewers, leading to greater brand recognition for the “proud sponsor”. One of only two “platinum partners” of Cricket Australia, the Commonwealth Banksponsors the national game at all levels.
But if the Commonwealth Bank is really so “proud” of its association with Cricket Australia, why is it investing in projects that endanger the health of Australian cricketers?
CommBank is the most structurally significant private investor in fossil fuels in Australia. It is Australia’s biggest bank by market capitalisation and loaned more money to fossil-fuel projects in 2016 than any other Australian bank. These are the same fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – that are the major drivers of global warming, leading to shocking increases in extreme weather, including heatwaves.
Although cricket is a summer sport, extreme heat is no joke for cricketers, as anyone who has played the game in such conditions can confirm.
There are well-known examples of the effect of extreme heat on cricketers. After compiling an extraordinarily brave double century against India in the tied Test at Chennai in 1985, Australian batsman Dean Jones described what it was like to bat in infernal conditions: “When you’re urinating in your pants and vomiting 15 times, you’ve got massive problems.”
When finally dismissed for 210, Jones was taken to hospital on a saline drip.
Physical activity in extreme heat can lead to severe health problems, including fatalities. According to the Climate Council, heatwaves have killed more Australians than any other natural hazards and have caused more deaths since 1890 than bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes, floods and severe storms combined.
Although they have always been with us in Australia, extremely hot days are now far more frequent. Just a couple of weeks ago, all grade cricket matches in Sydney were cancelled for what was reported to be the first time in the competition’s history, in order to protect the welfare of players, umpires and volunteers from the extreme heat which scientists say was driven by global warming.
As Cricket NSW doctor John Orchard noted, “grade cricket does not have the infrastructure in place to safely monitor and manage heatstroke in what is essentially an amateur, volunteer-run organisation”.
The disproportionate impact of extreme heat on amateur cricket is particularly ironic, given CommBank’s recent “realignment” of its sponsorship of Cricket Australia (explained here in a briefing by Saatchi) to a greater focus on support for the game at a community level.
The Commonwealth Bank’s group environment policy publicly supports the 2015 Paris Agreement and its goal of limiting global warming to well below 2C. Yet CommBank remains the most structurally important private investor in fossil fuels in Australia. Commonwealth Bank chief executive officer, Ian Narev, in giving evidence before the parliamentary inquiry into the banks on 7 March 2016, was not able to give a single example of a project that had been refused finance because of the bank’s commitment to the emissions targets in the Paris Agreement.
CommBank has not even ruled out providing finance to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, which is incompatible with both a 2C target and the survival of the Great Barrier Reef.
According to Saatchi, the brand promise of CommBank is “enablement for all Australians”, but global warming threatens the mass disabling of our human potential. If CommBank doesn’t want its brand to be associated with cricket matches being cancelled and players collapsing or pissing in their pants from heatstroke – quite apart from the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and all the broader impacts of global warming – then it is time to get out of investing in fossil fuels.
Last week two former Australian cricket captains – Ian and Greg Chappell – were among 91 prominent signatories to a letter calling on Adani to abandon the Carmichael mine project.
In explaining his opposition to Adani’s plans, Ian Chappell said “you don’t need to be Einstein when you see the frequency and the ferocity of some of the weather events that we’ve been having”.
If CommBank wants the trust of cricketers and cricket lovers of Australia, it needs to rule out any future involvement with the Carmichael mine and stop investing in the fossil fuel projects which threaten the health and enjoyment of all those who play and support our national game.
Australian commercial sponsors of sport must always be delighted when the results are close, wherever they are played. Excitement means more viewers, leading to greater brand recognition for the “proud sponsor”. One of only two “platinum partners” of Cricket Australia, the Commonwealth Banksponsors the national game at all levels.
But if the Commonwealth Bank is really so “proud” of its association with Cricket Australia, why is it investing in projects that endanger the health of Australian cricketers?
CommBank is the most structurally significant private investor in fossil fuels in Australia. It is Australia’s biggest bank by market capitalisation and loaned more money to fossil-fuel projects in 2016 than any other Australian bank. These are the same fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – that are the major drivers of global warming, leading to shocking increases in extreme weather, including heatwaves.
Although cricket is a summer sport, extreme heat is no joke for cricketers, as anyone who has played the game in such conditions can confirm.
There are well-known examples of the effect of extreme heat on cricketers. After compiling an extraordinarily brave double century against India in the tied Test at Chennai in 1985, Australian batsman Dean Jones described what it was like to bat in infernal conditions: “When you’re urinating in your pants and vomiting 15 times, you’ve got massive problems.”
When finally dismissed for 210, Jones was taken to hospital on a saline drip.
Physical activity in extreme heat can lead to severe health problems, including fatalities. According to the Climate Council, heatwaves have killed more Australians than any other natural hazards and have caused more deaths since 1890 than bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes, floods and severe storms combined.
Although they have always been with us in Australia, extremely hot days are now far more frequent. Just a couple of weeks ago, all grade cricket matches in Sydney were cancelled for what was reported to be the first time in the competition’s history, in order to protect the welfare of players, umpires and volunteers from the extreme heat which scientists say was driven by global warming.
As Cricket NSW doctor John Orchard noted, “grade cricket does not have the infrastructure in place to safely monitor and manage heatstroke in what is essentially an amateur, volunteer-run organisation”.
The disproportionate impact of extreme heat on amateur cricket is particularly ironic, given CommBank’s recent “realignment” of its sponsorship of Cricket Australia (explained here in a briefing by Saatchi) to a greater focus on support for the game at a community level.
The Commonwealth Bank’s group environment policy publicly supports the 2015 Paris Agreement and its goal of limiting global warming to well below 2C. Yet CommBank remains the most structurally important private investor in fossil fuels in Australia. Commonwealth Bank chief executive officer, Ian Narev, in giving evidence before the parliamentary inquiry into the banks on 7 March 2016, was not able to give a single example of a project that had been refused finance because of the bank’s commitment to the emissions targets in the Paris Agreement.
CommBank has not even ruled out providing finance to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, which is incompatible with both a 2C target and the survival of the Great Barrier Reef.
According to Saatchi, the brand promise of CommBank is “enablement for all Australians”, but global warming threatens the mass disabling of our human potential. If CommBank doesn’t want its brand to be associated with cricket matches being cancelled and players collapsing or pissing in their pants from heatstroke – quite apart from the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and all the broader impacts of global warming – then it is time to get out of investing in fossil fuels.
Last week two former Australian cricket captains – Ian and Greg Chappell – were among 91 prominent signatories to a letter calling on Adani to abandon the Carmichael mine project.
In explaining his opposition to Adani’s plans, Ian Chappell said “you don’t need to be Einstein when you see the frequency and the ferocity of some of the weather events that we’ve been having”.
If CommBank wants the trust of cricketers and cricket lovers of Australia, it needs to rule out any future involvement with the Carmichael mine and stop investing in the fossil fuel projects which threaten the health and enjoyment of all those who play and support our national game.
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