Covid-19: ICC Cricket Committee suggests ban of use of saliva to shine ball

The International Cricket Council's (ICC) Cricket Committee on Monday recommended changes to ICC regulations including prohibiting the use of saliva to shine the ball to mitigate the risks posed by coronavirus and protect players and match officials.

The recommendations of the Cricket Committee will now be presented to the ICC Chief Executives' Committee in early June for approval.

The Committee, chaired by Anil Kumble, concluded a conference call convened to specifically address the issues related to COVID-19 including maintaining the condition of the match ball and the appointment of non-neutral umpires and referees to international cricket.

"The ICC Cricket Committee heard from the Chair of the ICC Medical Advisory Committee Dr Peter Harcourt regarding the elevated risk of the transmission of the virus through saliva, and unanimously agreed to recommend that the use of saliva to polish the ball be prohibited," reads an ICC release.

"The Committee also noted the medical advice that it is highly unlikely that the virus can be transmitted through sweat and saw no need to prohibit the use of sweat to polish the ball whilst recommending that enhanced hygiene measures are implemented on and around the playing field," added the release.

Shining the ball is a major thing for bowlers in trying to extract some swing from the match. As the game starts swaying in favour of batsmen by each passing day, bowlers have to try everything they can to trouble the batsmen.

Currently, all cricketing action across the world has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Given the challenges of international travel with borders being closed, limited commercial flights and mandatory quarantine periods, the Committee recommended that local match officials be appointed in the short-term.

The appointments will continue to be made via the ICC from local Elite and International Panel referees and umpires. Where there are no Elite Panel match officials in the country, the best local International Panel match officials will be appointed.

The Committee also recommended that the use of technology is increased to support the appointments of a wider pool of umpires from around the world and has proposed an additional DRS review per team per innings is introduced in each format as an interim measure.
 

"We are living through extraordinary times and the recommendations the Committee have made today are interim measures to enable us to safely resume cricket in a way that preserves the essence of our game whilst protecting everyone involved," said ICC Cricket Committee Chair Anil Kumble.