The Coronavirus pandemic has brought all the cricketing activities everywhere in the world to a halt. Not only there is no cricket anywhere in the world, but questions are starting to raise on what changes might come to the game when it restarts.
The governing bodies are looking to start the game once the pandemic is on its way down, even if it means playing in empty stadiums devoid of crowd reactions to every six, four, and wicket falling. However, the ICC is tasked with finding out an alternative to one of the most fundamental things in the game.
ICC may ban using saliva to shine the ball after COVID-19 scare
Shining the ball in order to make it swing in the air is something we all have been seeing since the dawn of the game. Keeping one side of the ball shining and roughing the opposite end makes the ball swing or reverse swing, depending on the ability of the bowler is one of the most surreal things we see. Bowlers use many things to shine the ball which includes sweat and saliva in legal means and sandpaper, dust, mud in illegal means.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic running wild and saliva being one of the means of transmission of the virus, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is looking to legalize ball tampering using foreign objects.
ICC's medical committee had pointed out the obvious problem with shining the ball using saliva and the decision-makers might ask the teams to find other ways to shine the ball to help encourage conventional or reverse swing.
As a consequence, they are open to the option of allowing for the use of an agreed artificial substance to polish the ball under the supervision of the umpires - in the fashion they currently allow the ball to be cleaned by players under supervision.
Kookaburra, Dukes, and SG balls, to name three, are all likely to respond better to slightly different substances such as leather moisturizer, wax, or shoe polish. It would also require a degree of flexibility in terms of being allowed at all levels of the game, to prevent players at every level from sharing a ball that has been lathered in saliva.
History is full of examples of bowlers using artificial substances to shine the ball with wrist spin bowler Arthur Mailey using powered resin, Dennis Lillee quite openly recounted how he used lanolin, a type of wool wax.
"The situation is rapidly evolving and full of significant risk as there is still a lot to learn about COVID-19 which can make decision making difficult. The ICC Medical Committee is working with Member medical representatives to build a comprehensive picture of the issues cricket is facing," head of the ICC's medical committee Dr. Peter Harcourt said.
"Our next step is to create a roadmap for the resumption of international cricket which will include criteria for decision making and a checklist for what needs to happen. This will consider everything from player preparation to government restrictions and advisories and bio-bubbles,” he added.
(ESPNCricinfo inputs)
