Shane Warne reckons cricket needs to be more "proactive, not reactive" to the climate crisis prevailing across the globe. The legendary Australia leg-spinner said he was left shocked by a report that called on the authorities to act now against "humanity’s most pressing challenge".

The MCC World Cricket Committee that Warne is a part of was given an alarming preview in the Hit for Six report, published on Tuesday, where the threats of changing climate which many cricket nations faced were thoroughly examined. 

"At times in the past, it has been hard to know who to believe, but I think we all have to admit now that climate change is a huge issue," The Guardian quoted Warne as saying. "Scientists with proven facts are telling us things we can’t dispute about the rising temperatures, the rising sea levels."

"Before I’d seen the report I hadn’t really thought about how it would impact the game of cricket. Some of the stuff that we were presented with: how hot it was for some of the players at certain times – up to 50 degrees in the middle – how dangerous it was for them."

"How the risks affects local club cricket, how clubs have had their changing rooms destroyed by flooding in the UK, how the rising temperatures affect the way grass grows, was scary."

Written by academics and sports scientists, the report focussed mainly on how the heat affects the players of different genders and urged cricket’s administrators to protect them by reducing the game’s own carbon footprint. 

All the protective gear limits the players' ability to sweat. They are also required to sprint across the 22 yards the whole day. The report also came up with recommendations like players wearing shorts or play being abandoned during the hottest parts of the day.

"The game has to have a plan, a strategy for how we adapt for it. It wasn’t something I’d really talked about with ex-cricketers until this year at Lord’s. I was really taken aback," Warne said.

“I’m lucky enough to be on these committees with some very intelligent people and I hope they can come up with something. I’m more than happy to put my hand up, and sit down at a round-the-table discussion."

"I have got three children – 22, 20 and just about to turn 18 – it’s a different world for them. People want to put their head in the sand, and say I’m not going to be around in 50 years. That’s just wrong."

(Inputs from The Guardian)