Circular Economy
Cricket Gear and Clothing

24th March 2025
2:30 – 4:30
SGMEA
Jalandhar
India

Background
Cricket is the second largest sport and potentially the most gear intensive sport, with considerations related to the environmental impact of cricket gear production often overlooked. Despite the sector generating an estimated 1,646 tonnes of annual waste of cricket gear in England and Wales alone (Charter & Clark, 2023), sustainability initiatives in cricket remain focused on the wider impact of climate change of the game, venues, facilities, and grounds, rather than cricket gear (ECB, 2023). As a result, The Centre for Sustainable Design® (CfSD) at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) established the Platform for Accelerating Sustainable Innovation in Cricket (PASIC) in 2021.

The aim of this event is to offer stakeholders involved in the production of cricket gear and clothing an introduction to the circular economy and challenges and opportunities associated with its implementation in design and development. Findings and conclusions will be shared that focus on sustainability, cricket gear and clothing resulting from research projects completed by CfSD at UCA.

The presentations will cover an introduction to circular economy and implications for cricket gear and clothing producers. This will be followed by an update on the status of PPE regulations impacting on cricket gear brands and producers, and the standards revision process that is about start related to specific BSI cricket standards.

A series of research findings will then be presented:

• Consumer attitudes towards the use of plant-based vegan leathers, repair and refurbishment services, and the use of second life cricket gear resulting from large sample surveys that were conducted with recreational players in England between January 2024 and July 2024;
  
• Research into the feasibility of the use of plant based vegan leathers and other biobased materials to substitute animal hide leathers and polymer-based materials in cricket gear;
  
• The implementation of potential circular design strategies for product innovation within the sector;
  
• Opportunities for Q&A and further discussion will also be provided.

The workshop aligns to two projects:

• Product Circularity for Cricket: Reuse, Education & Prototyping (PC4CREP) that focuses on reuse and repair, and product circularity issues in cricket gear design and development.
  
• Product Sustainability-Circularity Policy Tool (PSCP) for Cricket Clothing that focuses on analysing existing and forthcoming product sustainability and circularity policy, legislation and standards developments and requirements related specifically to cricket clothing.

Programme
The presenters and facilitators will be Professor Martin Charter and Dr Lilian Sanchez Moreno from The Centre for Sustainable Design®(CfSD) at the University for the Creative Arts(UCA). 

2:30-2:45 Registration 

2:45-3:00 Introduction to the circular economy 

3:00-3:15 PPE regulations related to cricket gear and revision of BSI cricket gear standards. 

3:15-4:00 Findings and experience from circular cricket gear projects 

4:00-4:15 Introduction to circularity and cricket clothing

4:15-4:30 Feedback, concluding remarks and Q&A

Audience
The workshop is targeted at stakeholders in the cricket gear and clothing ecosystem in India including brands, manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers.

Registration
The event by invitation. Any queries please email rcarruthers@uca.ac.uk

Funding
The workshop is delivered via the PC4CREP and PSCP projects that are funded by the University for the Creative Arts UKRI/AHRC Impact Accelerator award and by UKRI through the Strategic Priorities Fund.