The Tata Group and BCCI have launched ‘Green Dot Ball’, pledging to plant trees for every dot ball in the Tata IPL and WPL 2026. A nationwide contest encourages fans to photograph any green dot-shaped object and upload it online using #SpotAnyGreenDot, promoting mass participation in environmental action.
In a move that blends the excitement of competitive cricket with a meaningful climate-conscious purpose, the Tata Group and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have jointly launched ‘Green Dot Ball’, an initiative in which trees will be planted for every dot ball bowled during the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) and Tata Women’s Premier League (WPL). The effort aims to transform one of the sport’s most tactical elements — the dot ball — into a symbol of regenerative action, ensuring that every moment of defensive brilliance on the pitch contributes to greener urban and semi-urban landscapes across the country in the years ahead.
The 2026 edition of Tata IPL and Tata WPL will serve as the platform for this expanded climate-linked campaign, which is further supported by a public-facing digital contest designed to drive awareness and participation among fans. The contest is open exclusively to Indian residents aged 18 and above and will be active from January 9 to May 14, 2026, aligning with the competitive window of the leagues. In doing so, the initiative bridges environmental stewardship with India’s most-followed sporting property, tapping into the enormous energy of cricket fandom to create a wider cultural movement around sustainability.
The campaign revolves around a simple visual cue — the “green dot”, a motif that mirrors the dot ball on the field but appears in countless everyday forms off the field. To enter, participants must photograph any green-coloured dot, circle, sphere, oval, or rounded object — which could range from traffic signal lights, bottle caps, fruit, signage, notebooks, décor items, or naturally occurring visuals — and upload their image either to the dedicated website www.greendotball.com or on their public profiles on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), or Facebook. To ensure entries are traceable on social platforms, each upload must include the hashtag #SpotAnyGreenDot. Instagram users must also tag @greendotball in their captions for their post to be deemed valid, while X users must ensure the required hashtag appears within the tweet itself.
The organisers have ensured accessibility by eliminating entry fees and permitting multiple entries, provided each submission features a different object or visual. Lucky winners will be chosen at random from the pool of valid entries throughout the contest period, introducing an element of gamification that aligns well with the participatory fan culture surrounding the IPL and WPL. The focus is not on skill or artistic merit but on widespread engagement, enabling anyone with a smartphone and an observant eye to take part.
The broader objective of Green Dot Ball extends beyond entertainment, tapping into the momentum of India’s growing environmental consciousness. Cricket occupies a rare position in India as both a cultural phenomenon and a unifying national pastime, allowing campaigns of this nature to achieve scale with relative ease. While dot balls have traditionally been celebrated for halting run flow and building pressure within the tactical narrative of a match, the new initiative overlays a second, more long-term benefit: ecological recovery. Each dot ball recorded across both premier leagues will directly translate into a new tree planted, creating measurable and traceable environmental outcomes long after the season concludes.
Such collaborations between sports franchises and corporate sustainability agendas reflect a shift in how major brands and institutions approach climate responsibility. Rather than segregating environmental initiatives into independent CSR channels, the campaign embeds them within mainstream engagement zones that fans and consumers already participate in with excitement. By integrating a contest layer, the Tata–BCCI partnership reframes sustainability from passive obligation into an active and playful gesture — reinforcing that environmental action can be both meaningful and enjoyable.
As the 2026 cricket season approaches, the Green Dot Ball initiative underscores a sentiment that resonates well with modern audiences: that the games we love can also shape the world we want. In the months ahead, millions of viewers will track dot balls as part of match strategy; now, they will also track them as seeds of future forests — one defensive delivery at a time.
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