Electricity to be conserved too; cricket body aims to promote eco-friendly ways among people.
Buzzwords often keep changing, sometimes for the better. The newest one is ‘cricket for sustainable development’. To borrow a cliche, this is one with a difference.
That’s because this is a project that comes with an in-built campaign component. This is the Green Wicket project of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) which seeks not only to establish it as a seal of approval for eco-friendly and resource-efficient stadia, but also promote eco-friendly practices among fans and the public.
For one, the Green Wicket project at Chinnaswamy Stadium will conserve nothing less than 3.6 crore litres of rainwater every year. The rainwater harvesting systems are already in place.
Electricity is to be conserved too — 400KW solar panels too would be installed. The campaign, which is a joint initiative of KSCA, the state government and GIZ (a bilateral cooperation agency of Germany), will subsequently facilitate installation of solar panels in educational institutions across the state.
The KSCA had signed an agreement to this effect in January this year with GIZ, under which the latter would implement ‘resource-efficient’ measures within Chinnaswamy Stadium, and create awareness on this measures among both cricket fans and the general public through the campaign. The aim of the campaign, is to go beyond just awareness creation and promote action, according to Bineesha Payattati of GIZ.
The Green Wicket campaign will be launched at Chinnaswamy Stadium before the seventh one-day international between Australia and India gets under way on Saturday. Captains of both teams will sign the campaign. It will be inaugurated by state chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, in the presence of German consul-general Jörn Rohdem, GIZ-IGEP director Dieter Mutz, and KSCA officials Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. The IGEP is the Indo-German Environment Partnership (IGEP) programme.
Sanitation
The campaign has also partnered with WSH United that works to end the global sanitisation and hygiene crisis by making toilets and good hygiene “cool” and “attractive”. And since each cricket match creates tonnes of waste from plastic cups alone, the Green Wicket campaign will promote usage of reusable cups. This practice too would be extended to schools and colleges in the city.
The Green Wicket inaugural ceremony will include the screening of a promotional video, created by Pradip Saha of Damage Control, on the giant screen at the stadium. Said Saha, “Obviously, the campaign rests on celebrity endorsement. But we tried to link cricket with the four elements the campaign is focusing on: water, energy, waste, sanitation. To start with the animation attempts to link cricket and those elements only visually.”
He said, “It is a simple visual idea. In the near future, we’ll using the cricketers to introduce the subjects, predominantly targeting youth. So, it will not be preachy. Cricket is a game, we shall remain playful in the campaign, without diluting the essence.”
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