February 24th 2026, 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 builds on CfSD’s research and innovation activities – Platform for Accelerating Sustainable Innovation in Cricket (PASIC) – and aligns fully with Decathlon’s commitment to drive circularity.

One of the workshops in progress in Bangalore

Additionally, 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.

“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.”

Rob Davies, Sport Director for Cricket at Decathlon

The programme included visits to academies, interviews with cricket equipment customers and semi-professional players, a workshop and discussions. “Academies in India are an ideal starting point to learn about their use of cricket gear from young and older players and identify ideas for improvements from both a performance and circularity perspective,” says Charter.

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.”

CfSD Director Professor Martin Charter

One of the most gear intensive sports

Charter adds, “Cricket is the second biggest sport in the world, with hundreds of millions of fans in India. It’s also one of the most gear intensive sports globally, with huge volumes of cricket gear being produced year-on-year.

“A significant amount of damaged  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 taken up the mantle and joined forces with us to reduce the environmental impacts of the game.”

Looking ahead

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

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

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

*GreenThink! is CfSD’s exclusive, customised process that supports companies in developing more sustainable solutions through existing and new products, services, and product-services.