Bangladesh Players Train with Masks After Sri Lanka Cancel Session Due to Rising Air Pollution in Delhi

As Delhi is gearing up to host its final ODI World Cup 2023 fixture, the national capital welcomed the teams – Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – amid severe air pollution. The situation was such that the Bangla Tigers cancelled their training session on Friday as they didn’t want to take a chance and so did, the Lankans a day after.

Sri Lanka were scheduled to train on Saturday afternoon – from 2 PM to 5 PM – at the Arun Jaitely Stadium in Delhi but cancelled the session due to the rising air pollution as the players decided not to step out from their team hotel.

ICC World Cup: Schedule | Results | Points Table | Most Runs | Most Wickets

However, Bangladesh, unlike Friday, trained at the venue on Saturday but with masks on. The coaches and the players hit the nets a light session with their faces covered.

No signs of shifting venues

According to the government’s ‘early warning system’, the air pollution will remain at ‘severe’ levels up until Monday. Given that, there are still no signs of the game getting moved out of the city. It’s up to the ICC and the match officials to take the final call on whether the game should go ahead or be called off on Monday.

Training schedule on Sunday – November 5

A day prior to the game, the teams will continue their training sessions on Sunday, as stated by the ICC. Bangladesh will hold a training session from 2 PM to 5 PM while Sri Lanka will train from 6 PM to 9 PM.

Delhi’s AQI – a major concern

Pollution levels in Delhi and its surrounding areas dipped marginally overnight due to a relatively better wind speed, though the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 was still over 80 times the healthy limit prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Friday’s 24-hour average AQI was the worst since the previous high of 471 recorded on November 12, 2021. On Saturday morning, the AQI remained in the severe category and hit a high of 470, a very marginal improvement from Friday.

Air quality in Delhi-NCR declined over the past week due to a gradual drop in temperatures, calm winds that trap pollution, and a surge in post-harvest paddy straw burning across Punjab and Haryana. A report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) in August said that air pollution is shortening lives by almost 12 years in Delhi.