Australian opener David Warner does not see the need to abolish the use of saliva to shine the ball when cricket resumes in the post-Covid-19 world as he feels it is no more or no less risky than sharing the change room with fellow players.
There is speculation that the use of saliva to shine the ball will be stopped to cut down the risk of the highly contagious infection when international cricket restarts.
“You’re sharing change rooms and you’re sharing everything else, I don’t see why you have to change that,” Warner told cricket.com.au.
“It’s been going around for hundreds of years now, I can’t recall anyone that’s got sick by doing that. If you’re going to contract a bug, I don’t think it’d necessarily be just from that.
“I’m not too sure but it’s not my place to comment on whether or not we should or shouldn’t (use saliva to shine the ball). It’s up to the ICC and the governing bodies to decide.”
However, former fast bowler Shaun Tait believes it is important to be open about changes and the use of saliva could become a thing of the past.
“I’ve never been a huge fan of the saliva on the ball, it’s not very nice really,” Tait said.
“We have to open to some possible changes there.”
The subject of legalisation of ball-tampering has led to divided opinions with West Indies pace great Michael Holding saying it is a bit “self-contradictory”, while South Africa legend Allan Donald being open to the idea.
Gillespie felt traditional ball-shining practice “pretty gross” and suggested umpires could be asked to police the shining of the ball.
Hadlee, meanwhile, called for an “enlarged seam to give the bowlers more assistance”.
The issue is less of an issue in limited-overs cricket, but Australia quick Josh Hazlewood says “Test cricket would be very hard” if the ball could no longer be shined.
“Bowlers rely on any sort of sideways movement in the air. If you didn’t maintain the ball at all for 80 overs it would be quite easy to bat after that initial shine has gone,” he said.
“Whether you use saliva or sweat, maybe one person can do it. I’m not sure. It’s something that will have to be talked about when we get back out there and hopefully come up with a solution,” he added.
Among others, batting great Sachin Tendulkar said players will be wary of using saliva to shine the ball, while Pakistan legend Waqar Younis, former India pacer Ashish Nehra and spinner Harbhajan Singh have supported the use of spit.
(With PTI inputs)
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