A joint report by sports researchers and environmental academics unveiled this week in England urges cricket authorities to introduce “heat rules” including allowing players to wear shorts in response to climate change.

The review, by the British Association for Sustainable Sport and two universities, also calls for extra care around youth players and for manufacturers to develop equipment that enhances air flow, as extreme heat becomes more common.

“This is a wake-up call not just for cricket, but for all sport,” said Russell Seymour, sustainability manager at Lord’s cricket ground in London — the spiritual home of the game — who wrote the foreword to the report.

“Sportspeople are not by nature bystanders and we can and must react to avoid the crises approaching us.”

Gold 😂 Mitch Marsh on the 'sniper' that got him again on day one and the big sacrifice he had to make on his way back to the Test team! #Ashes pic.twitter.com/zZf608xyUc — cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) September 12, 2019

Dominic Goggins, an environmental policy consultant who also worked on the report, told The Independent there was “lively discussion” around recommending shorts.

“Whether it happens or not will be up to (cricket’s governing bodies), but what we’re clear on is that it should be based on a solid risk-based analysis country by country which involves the cricket board in a meaningful way, and then they can properly adapt to the way in which climate change is going to affect cricket in the locations they’re responsible for,” he said.

But another of the report’s authors, professor Mike Tipton of the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth, said shorts were inevitable.

“For cricketers it’s almost a perfect storm,” he said. “They’re stuck in the middle of a pitch with no shade, they’re going to have thousands of watts per metre squared of sun beating down on them, they are exercising harder than most people think, particularly batsmen who are doing the equivalent of about an 8km per hour run, so they’ve got a large thermal load from the environment, they’ve got a large thermal load from their own bodies producing heat with exercise, then, just to cap it all off, we stick a load of clothing, padding and a helmet on them.”

The “Hit for Six” report details how cricket-playing countries such as India and Australia are already being severely impacted by extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves and storms that experts say are being made more common by climate change.

It notes youth matches in Australia have been disrupted due to heat, while dire water shortages have hit a tour of South Africa and flooding has delayed cricket in England.

Its authors say they have combined climate science with heat physiology to show how batsmen and wicketkeepers are becoming increasingly susceptible to poorer performances due to the conditions.

They argue “safety-related heat stress guidelines” are now needed, and that more games may need to be postponed or rearranged to cooler times of the day.

“Above 35 degrees (Celsius) the body runs out of options to cool itself,” said Mike Tipton, professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth and one of the report’s authors.

“For batsman and wicketkeepers even sweating has limited impact as the heavy protective cladding creates a highly humid microclimatenext to their bodies.”

He added: “Particular care must be given to young players and the grassroots of the sport where elite-levelcooling facilities simply aren’t available.”