With the ICC reportedly considering legalising ball-tampering in order to discontinue the tradition of using saliva, sweat to shine the cricket ball in the wake of COVID-19 scare, few renowned names from Indian cricket went about discussing whether that is a prudent idea and what would the external substances be if the governing body actually walks that path.
While Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh reckon the use of saliva is a "must" in order to maintain the shine of the ball, Aakash Chopra wants to know where the line would be drawn for bowlers in terms of allowances.
"Get one thing clear at the onset. The ball will not swing if you don’t apply sweat or saliva on the ball. That’s basic necessity of swing bowling. The moment ball gets scuffed up from one side, sweat and saliva must be applied on the other side," Nehra, who retired from the game in 2017, told PTI.
"Now let’s understand why do you need saliva? Sweat is heavier than saliva but both are heavy enough to make one side of the ball heavier for reverse swing. Vaseline comes into the picture only after sweat and saliva, not before that."
"It is lighter and doesn’t even ensure conventional swing. It can keep the shine but doesn’t make the ball heavy," added the 2011 World Cup-winner.
The former left-arm pacer cited the example of John Lever, whose use of vaseline during the 1976 tour of India, led to a major uproar at the time.
"I can bet Lever used sweat and saliva and then applied vaseline. Vaseline only helps the ball to skid and nothing more. You apply vaseline only, the ball will just go straight. You can check that with any fast bowler."
Harbhajan concurred. "It’s not that murray mint can be used without putting it in your mouth," he said. "The coat of sugar on the saliva makes it heavier after one side gets scuffed. A scuffed-up ball is also good for spinners as it ensures a better grip than a shiny new ball. But my question is, if you allow, what’s the limit?"
"Suppose you legalise ball-tampering and let people use bottle cap. Now the ball starts reversing from the fifth over. Is it fair? Or maybe umpires come into play and they tell you now is the time when you can use external substance."
"I mean, in any case, taking saliva out of equation means taking swing out which may not be good idea," added the veteran off-spinner.
Chopra, the former Test batsman and renowned commentator, wants more clarity on the issue.
"I always felt that allowing mint shouldn’t be a problem," he said. "But now they have gone to the extent that they don’t want to allow mint. But now if you change rule, ok let’s allow them to use finger nails, vaseline, now where does it stop God knows."
"Spinners won’t mind as they do get a bit of drift if the ball is kept shiny from one side. So they won’t actually mind as long as you are not landing the shiny surface of the ball," Chopra added.
(Inputs from PTI)
