FARNHAM, U.K. - s4story -- Farnham, Surrey, UK, and Bangalore, India. The cricket division of global sports goods manufacturer Decathlon has partnered with The Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) at University for the Creative Arts (UCA), Farnham, Surrey, UK, to reduce the amount of waste produced by cricket equipment, with an initial focus on protective cricket gear.

The partnership includes advice by CfSD to Decathlon Cricket on enhancing potential product circularity of cricket protective equipment, innovation workshops, and a survey of players in India to increase understanding of the use of their equipment

Following a visit to a cricket equipment manufacturing cluster in Northern India in 2025, CfSD held an exploratory workshop with Decathlon Cricket at their Bangalore offices. This was followed by a five-day innovation programme to February 4^th 2026 managed by a team from Decathlon Cricket with CfSD Director Professor Martin Charter and CfSD researcher Dr. Lilian Sanchez-Moreno.

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"Given us new perspectives"

Rob Davies, Sport Director for Cricket at Decathlon, commented, "The collaboration between Lilian, Martin and my team has so far given us new perspectives on how we can continue to develop cricket equipment that is more sustainable and less quickly discarded. Importantly, it delivered some new product concepts that can be moved into early-stage prototypes that we look forward to testing in real-world conditions."

The programme included visits to academies, interviews with cricket equipment customers and semi-professional players, a workshop and discussions.

GreenThink!

Charter led a GreenThink!* – a "sustainable innovation" workshop focused on cricket gear. A significant input to it was CfSD's five years' knowledge of cricket gear and product circularity, which has been integrated into the "GreenThink!".

The programme delivered new ideas for protective cricket gear with improved product performance and reduced environmental impacts.

Working prototypes

Says Charter, "The workshop and discussions were very productive, with the new concepts that emerged now being developed into early-stage prototypes. The next stage will see working prototypes - and testing them with players."

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One of the most gear intensive sports

Charter adds, "A significant amount of damaged crciket gear ends up in landfill or stored, forgotten. Brands in general have not done much to tackle the mounting problem of waste gear.

"But Decathlon Cricket in India has joined forces with us to reduce the environmental impacts of the game."

Lille- (France) based Decathlon invests heavily in India, with 70% of its products manufactured locally.

Looking ahead

Going forward in India, CfSD will continue to work with Decathlon Cricket on incorporating circularity into cricket protective equipment.

CfSD's Platform for Accelerating Sustainable Innovation in Cricket (PASIC): https://cfsd.org.uk/projects/cricket/