One of the most loved aspects of cricket is the variation in playing conditions, not only from day to day (in multi-day matches) but also sometimes from hour to hour. The variation of match conditions can also be viewed through a safety prism. Cricket has traditionally had a zero-tolerance approach to rain and bad light yet a high degree of tolerance to extreme heat. Deaths in cricket during play are extremely rare from any cause, including heat-related deaths. The true incidence of ‘heat-related’ illness is not well documented, partially because defining a threshold or cutoff is very difficult. One person’s low-grade heat illness may be considered by their opponent to be a triumph of fitness viewed from the less susceptible individual’s viewpoint. The traditional view may yet slowly change as the impact of climate change makes days of extreme heat more common. The traditionalists’ view of cricket being a sport played during the day with a red ball has already changed, driven by the spectators at both grounds and on TV, and the modern scheduling towards night cricket has provided plenty of mitigation at a professional level. Grandstands and lighting towers have naturally mitigated other environmental risk considerations such as lightning. The tradition of dry pitches in the hottest countries (which suit spin bowlers) also provides some natural balance. Nevertheless, more formal measures of heat stress must be developed to give objective data to the umpires to help decide when environmental conditions are too risky to continue play or, perhaps, to introduce extra drink breaks as a middle-ground measure.