In wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned the traditional practice of using saliva to shine the ball.
See Also: ICC bans saliva use, approves COVID-19 substitutes in Tests and additional DRS review
The apex body, however, saw no need to prohibit the use of sweat, which carries less risk of virus transmission, to polish the cricket ball.
But Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar has asked what the bowlers are supposed to do in cooler confines of England and New Zealand where working up a sweat won’t be that easy.
In a chat with former Australia pacer Brett Lee for social media platform ‘100 MB’, Tendulkar highlighted the challenges for fast bowlers in adjusting to new playing conditions in view of the Coronavirus outbreak.
“So what happens to places like New Zealand or even England, when those typical cold English weather, so what does one do, when you are not going to sweat?” Tendulkar questioned.
“First thing is you put on a thermal or a long T-shirt. I remember when I was playing for Yorkshire, in 1992 and it was beginning of May and it was freezing. I had five layers on me. What happens now in these conditions, how do you shine the ball, when there is no sweat?” he further asked.
Saliva is primarily used on a new ball for swing purpose while sweat is applied on the old ball when reverse swing comes into play.
“Whatever period we have played, we have used saliva when the ball was new, and when the ball starts reversing, from saliva you move to sweat to make one side heavier. And that imbalance in weight will help the ball go in that direction.
“I found there were two ways to get the ball to reverse, one was to have imbalance in weight and the other one was to keep it smoother, so there is less friction and it travels faster, when scuffed up,” Tendulkar explained.
The former India captain said in such a situation, the fielding side is left with just the sweat option, which is much lighter.
“So you are basically left with one option, isn’t it, because the other option of shining and saliva and not focusing much on getting that side heavy, that option is more or less ruled out, it’s only the sweat one would have to work on,” the 47-year-old, who played 200 Tests, said.
Sachin also expressed his doubt on the conclusion that putting sweat on the ball is not unhygienic.
“Now it is considered that putting saliva is unhygienic, is putting sweat on the ball hygienic?,” he asked.
“With this mindset that we have now of social distancing, is putting sweat on the ball hygienic. I would think twice, now it is somewhere registered that you know it can’t be hygienic.”
“So when you apply sweat on the ball, it really cleans the dirt on the ball. When you apply saliva it is kind of concentrated and you can actually work better on the ball,” the world’s highest run-getter said.
(With PTI inputs)
