Brett Lee and Sachin Tendulkar have stepped up pressure ahead of a key world body meeting on Wednesday for an alternative to saliva to be allowed for shining the cricket ball.
The International Cricket Council is expected to order a temporary ban on using saliva (spit) for shining as part of measures to get the sport restarted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Fast bowlers make the ball swing in the air by shining one side with saliva or sweat. Sweat would still be allowed, but is considered less effective.
“Maybe there are other ways that ICC needs to look in, assisting the bowler maybe in giving them something,” former Australian pace bowler Lee said in an interaction with Indian batting great Tendulkar on his 100MB online app.
“Maybe try a new substance that they can potentially use that everyone agrees on, that the batsmen are happy with, that the bowlers are happy with.”
Also read: With saliva ban looming, should external substances be used for shining?
Tendulkar said playing in cold countries will diminish the option of using sweat. “You are not going to sweat,” he said naming New Zealand, Ireland and England.
“When I played for Yorkshire in 1992. I went there in the beginning of May and it was freezing. I can’t forget the game I played in Hove, I had five layers on me.”
Australian ball manufacturer Kookaburra is developing a wax applicator to shine the ball, but the world body is reluctant to allow artificial aids.
Lee, a two-time World Cup winner, said bowlers should be given some leeway by umpires, including getting “two or three warnings” about using saliva before action is taken.
“Because I can guarantee you, if the players are told they can’t do it, they won’t do it on purpose but I think it will happen through that natural instinct.”
Tendulkar elaborated further about the challenges of using only sweat.
“In Test cricket, suddenly if the surfaces are not good, the standard of playing I feel drops down. And above all the game slows down because, the batters knows if I don’’t play a stupid shot here, no one can get me out and the bowler knows, on this surface I have to be patient,” Tendulkar said.
“But why not then to get the game moving, have a new ball after every 45-50 or 55 overs because in ODI cricket we have to play only 50 overs, and you have two new balls there, so literally 25 overs, so that’’s it,” said Tendulkar.
Tendulkar compared his proposal to day-night ODI cricket.
“So here in Test cricket, if you are not going to allow saliva, and sometimes you won’t sweat as much depending on climate where you are playing, it could be a lot like day-night one dayers,” the maestro said.
“In ODI cricket, bowling when conditions are dry in day night match and bowling second when there is lot of dew on the ground, so on paper the conditions and rules are exactly the same, but on field conditions are totally different, it’’s chalk and cheese,” he added.
Watch part of the interaction here:
Fast bowlers could struggle to swing the ball under the new rules with Australian quick bowler Mitchell Starc saying the game could become “boring” if batters dominate.
But Anil Kumble, the former Indian Test captain and now chairman of the ICC cricket committee that recommended the ban on saliva (but not sweat), is hoping spinners could play a bigger part as a result.
“You can probably leave grass on the surface or even rough it up and have two spinners,” he told an online forum. “Let’s get spinners back in the game in a Test match. Because if it’s a one-day or T20 game, you’re not worried about the ball or shining of the ball.”
(With AFP and PTI inputs)
Update: Saliva ban, Covid-19 substitutions in Tests: Here are interim changes for cricket confirmed by ICC
Also read: Ball tampering was always a part of cricket. Maybe it can now be seen as a solution, not a problem
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