Australian opener David Warner has found it ridiculous that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned the usage of saliva to shine the ball. This ruling came after the recommendations of the ICC Cricket Committee in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Saliva is the primary mode of transmission of the deadly virus, which has seen more than 8,900,000 cases worldwide with over 460,000 deaths since the virus was first reported in the Wuhan province of China. In order to keep the players safe, ICC has banned the usage of saliva until a vaccine is developed for the virus.
"We are in a position where it's new to everyone. If we can't use saliva on the ball to shine it, we might not be able to ever use saliva again. These parameters are put in health reasons for the players and we have to abide by those laws,” Warner said in the second episode of India Today E-Inspiration.
He called the ruling made by Anil Kumble-led committee ‘silly’.
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"It's going to be interesting for sure. Whether or not there is a designated ball shiner, it's weird. From my point of view, if you can't put saliva on the ball but you can throw it, catch it and throw it back to that person, you have more sweat on your palms than anything so... I'm not educated in that sort of (health) sector but for me, it just seems a little bit silly that you can't use saliva but you have sweaty hands and all that,” Warner explained.
ICC has also introduced a new COVID substitute rule to replace a player mid-match who shows symptoms of having contracted Coronavirus.
"I only read about this the other day, some of the things they are putting in place you just have to adhere to. They are trying to alleviate the chances of this spreading and the chances of someone actually contracting it. They have to try something. But in general with the world, there are a lot of grey areas with everything, even here in Australia there's a lot of grey areas,” Warner addressed the issue.
“They are putting the parameters in place and it's great if we could just adhere by them and do our best to keep those distances at bay," Warner signed off.
