Canberra smoke haze sees Cricket ACT consider cancelling games

Canberra's air quality was marked as hazardous on Monday by ACT air quality indexes and the haze is expected to hover over the city until at least Wednesday, after strong winds drove smoke from nearby bushfires across the capital.

The ACT Meteors are scheduled to face Thailand to aid the small nation's preparations for their maiden World Cup appearance in two games at Manuka Oval and Queanbeyan on Thursday.

But the matches are now in jeopardy of being called off with chief executive James Allsopp adamant games at any level will not go ahead unless the conditions clear.

Cricket ACT have cancelled all high performance training sessions slated for early in the week and will make game day calls on junior matches scheduled for Wednesday.

It could force the cancellation of the second round of the senior premier competition's Twenty20 Cup on Thursday.

"Our number one priority is the health and wellbeing of everyone involved in our cricket community. That's at the forefront," Allsopp said.

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"If we've got to cancel games of cricket to maintain people's health, that's just what we will do.

"We saw how quickly it changed on the weekend so we don't want to make too many big calls around games until closer to the time because things can change pretty quickly.

"At this stage there is a strong recommendation there is no training on Tuesday in any capacity and we'll reassess from there."

Cricket ACT will also reimburse the costs of P2 antivirus protective face masks for groundsmen spending time preparing turf wickets.

Capital Football scrapped six-a-side competitions over the weekend and advised any clubs with games or training scheduled to monitor advice issued by ACT Health.

"We've had some matches delayed due to heat before and extra drink breaks put in. Summer can be brutal but the safety of the players is everyone's number one priority," Capital Football chief executive Phil Brown said.

"We watch the weather alerts that come out from the bureau of meteorology, and then adjust our competitions to suit."

AFL Canberra cancelled AFLX and AFL 9s games scheduled for Monday night.

The Canberra Raiders have opted against shifting their NRL pre-season training schedule, instead deciding to train through the haze as they look to avenge grand final heartbreak.

Dan McKellar's ACT Brumbies and W-League club Canberra United battled through the heat and the smoke on Monday afternoon to continue regular training programs.

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"Thankfully the smoke and fires haven't really affected anything here but is affecting a lot of other places in Australia at the moment," Brumby Blake Enever said.

"We're grateful and trying to get work done at the moment in the best way we can.

"We'll just deal with it if it happens and if it's still around round one, so be it. I'd hate to think if it was with the fires around.

"We'll just train the best way we can at the moment, adapt and every team that comes here has to deal with the same conditions we've got here.

"We'll just prepare the best way we can for round one."