Climate change is "rubbish", Simon says.

Cricket commentator Simon Doull felt the heat on Tuesday, when he went all climate change denier mid-way through an ODI over he was commenting for Sky Sport.

As is often the way in cricket commentaries, the Nelson weather came up and Doull came in off the long run with his "if you listen to the people who believe in that climate change rubbish, then it'll be sunny again and we'll be complaining about the heat."

It might have been tongue-in-cheek, Doull is a "radio personality" after all.

His credentials also include right-hand batsman, right-arm medium pace bowler, but not as far as can be determined - meteorologist or better still, climate scientist.

When Doull made his remarks, Nelson was basking in a clear 22degC day, with moderate breezes and 65 per cent humidity.

ANDREW CORNAGA/PHOTOSPORT Sky Commentators Simon Doull and Mark Richardson.

And then the heat went up, on social media and cricket blogs at least. Climate change is a political hot potato.

Simon Doull, bringing all the smart reckons to cricket commentary: "...if you listen to those people who believe that climate change rubbish, it'll be sunny again." — Wheronui (@Wheronui1) January 8, 2019 I used to like Simon Doull but I’m pretty sure he just seriously referred to ‘those people who talk about that climate change rubbish’. This man will soon be commentating games featuring Bangladesh, one of the world’s most climate-threatened countries. — Alec Dawson (@alecnz) January 8, 2019 Simon Doull thinks climate change is rubbish. Mate your job is to commentate cricket. No one wants to hear your political views. #NZvSL — Sam Smith (@sgowsmith1988) January 8, 2019 Did I hear that right that Simon Doull is a climate change denier? #NZvSL — Simon Hampton (@SimonHampton9) January 8, 2019

If Doull was in fact being serious, his views fly in the face of world's best climate brains – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – which recently laid out a new best case scenario: with "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" we might be able to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.

Climate change - now generally regarded as caused by human activity - has resulted in sea level rises, melting ice sheets, accelerating species extinction, heatwaves, ocean acidification.

Climate scientists probably don't know what impact that has had on how the cricket ball moves through the air, or spins off a pitch.

Simon might.

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