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I<\/span>n those dog days of late June, when it was too hot to do anything but count down the hours until the sun went down, sport frazzled as well. Horse races were cancelled, a guest village provided shade at the Wimbledon qualifiers, and all around the UK school activities were wiped out, from sports days to the national rounders tournament.<\/p>\n At the third Test at Trent Bridge, where England\u2019s men were playing New Zealand in what turned out to be Ben Stokes\u2019s last hurrah, the England and Wales Cricket<\/a> Board pressed the button on their extreme heat policy and did what they could to protect players and crowd from temperatures that an open ground in the Midlands was not built to deal with.<\/p>\n There were extra water stations, alongside regular reminders to the crowd to keep hydrated, more ambulances and more doctors. Stewards set up chairs in cooler parts of the stadium, while the players were plied with drinks. The first few days were more like an endurance event than a sporting celebration, and it was fitting that England went down in a blaze of infamy<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is hard to mitigate against extreme heat in cricket<\/a>, other than move start times to the evening and reduce the number of overs. The game takes place on an open field, over a long period of time, and at grassroots level there are none of the fancy ice vests and isotonic rehydration experts available to the professionals.<\/p>\n But there is one simple thing that recreational \u2013 and first-class \u2013 grounds can do to bring both shade and comfort to players and supporters: plant trees.<\/p>\n Trees are the earth\u2019s natural lungs, ventilators and nurses. They provide shelter and help reduce air temperature, partly through shade but also because they transpire and release water to the atmosphere. They massage the immune system, alleviate stress, reduce air pollution \u2013 and they do it all for free.<\/p>\n There is one tree that, for cricket fans, stands above all others, a quasi religious symbol of the game and provider of bats: the willow. As luck would have it, it also happens to be a wildlife god.<\/p>\n Mark Cocker is a naturalist and Guardian County Diarist<\/a> as well as a judge for The Cricketer magazine\u2019s Greenest Cricket Ground<\/a> competition. He says: \u201cMore invertebrates live on willow trees [452 species] than any other trees, with their closest contenders being our oaks [423]. They also support 160 lichens. They are key members of the natural community at key moments of wider seasonal hardship. Their March blossom is a lifesaver for spring insects, while the trees\u2019 infestations with 23 aphid species makes them rich protein sources for birds all summer long.<\/p>\n \u201cWillows are in effect ecosystems. They also have a further secret power that is incredibly beneficial, a capacity for \u2018cleaning up\u2019 polluted soils and water, a process known as phytoremediation. They are able to absorb heavy metals, excess nutrients and pesticides from contaminated environments. They are thus nature\u2019s clean-up team.\u201d<\/p>\n