England all-rounder Chris Woakes feels banning the use of saliva on balls will not be an issue as bowlers will eventually find other ways to shine the ball.
Earlier this week, the ICC Cricket Committee recommended a ban on the use of saliva to shine the ball owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Woakes feels applying saliva on the ball is a habit and it will take some practice to get rid of it when cricket resumes.
“Moving forward you’re going to have remind yourself that you can’t use those things to shine the ball,” Woakes was quoted as saying by Wisden.
The 31-year-old said the bowlers’ job will become harder without the use of saliva on the ball.
“Don’t get me wrong, you can shine the ball without saliva and sweat, it probably just doesn’t have the same effect. You might have to work a little bit harder on rubbing on the trousers,” he said.
“We will find ways to shine the ball, whether that’s being a little bit more aggressive on the shining side of things. I’m sure we will find a way of getting some shine into that ball and making sure it does move off the straight,” he added.
The 31-year-old said he was thankful that this summer he has to work with the Duke ball, which has a more prominent seam as compared to the Kookaburra.
“I think, luckily enough the ball moves around in England anyway. You don’t always have to overly work hard on the ball, so hopefully that’ll work in our favour a bit. Thankfully it’s a Dukes and not a Kooka this summer, because then we would be struggling.
“The Dukes always gives you a little bit of something as a bowler so hopefully that can continue from my point of view. In regards to the shining of the ball, in England generally you will get a little bit of seam movement. Effectively, it doesn’t really matter if you shine the ball or not,” he said.
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