Understanding how desperate cricketers and all sportsperson will be to get back to their normal routines and resume their lives on the field, former India opener Gautam Gambhir urged them to try and accept the new normal enforced upon them by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For players, who were really looking forward to the summer ahead, it must be genuinely frustrating to have been confined to their four walls because of the deadly outbreak, which has forced countries to opt for lockdowns and led to indefinite suspension of all sporting activities. 

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"Social distancing and other rules may not be easy for any sport to maintain. You can still manage to do it with cricket, but how will you do it in football, hockey and other sports as well. So, I think you just have to live with it, probably the sooner you accept it, the better it is," said Gambhir on Star Sports' show 'Cricket Connected'. 

Meanwhile, Gambhir also weighed in over talks around the potential changes to rules and regulations of cricket post the pandemic. Specifically on the usage of saliva and sweat to shine the cricket ball, the 38-year-old said alternatives need to be there in place to ensure bowlers are given a fair deal. 

"I don’t think a lot of rules and regulations will be changed, you can probably have an alternative for the usage of saliva -- apart from that I don’t think so many changes will happen," he said. 

"Players and everyone else need to live with this virus; probably they have to get used to it that there is a virus and that it will be around. Players might end up catching it, and you got to live with it," added Gambhir, who played 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is for India. 

(Inputs from IANS)