Pakistani pace bowling legend Wasim Akram feels that bowlers will be turned into robots as ICC put a ban on saliva usage to shine the ball in midst of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Bowlers traditionally get the ball to move or swing in the air by applying shine to one side using sweat or saliva.

"It will make bowlers robots, coming and bowling without swing," Akram said.

"It's a quizzical situation for me as I grew up using saliva to shine the ball and to swing it. I am all for precautions in these tough times, so bowlers have to wait for the ball to get old and rough for them to get swing. Sweat alone was unlikely to generate swing as in some countries it was too cold,” Akram added.

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ICC has allowed sweat to be used for the bowlers to shine the ball, but Akram feels sweat is basically water, which will make the ball heavy and wet after prolonged usage. "Sweat is just something of an add-on, a top-up. Too much use of sweat will leave the cricket ball too wet," he said.

Talking about potential alternatives, Akram felt artificial substance could potentially help as he encouraged officials to keep searching for alternatives.

"I believe that they will need to find a reasonable solution. Artificial substances like vaseline could be used to swing the ball but how much of it? Let's see, we have this England versus the West Indies series to judge how it goes, because I have never experienced this thing," he signed off.

International cricket resumes on July 8 as England takes on the West Indies in the first Test of the three-match series.

(AFP inputs)