With an eye on the coronavirus pandemic, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricket Committee has recommended banning the use of saliva to polish the match ball. While all former and current players believe that it important to ensure safety at this time, they also believe that it will be slightly difficult to keep off the natural habit of using spit to shine the ball.
Speaking on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected, Brett Lee said: “When you have done something your whole life from 8,9, 10 years of age where you lick your fingers and you put on the ball, it’s very hard to change that overnight too. So, I think there’s going to be a couple of occasions, or there’s going to be some leniency I think from the ICC, where there may be warnings. It’s a great initiative, it’s going to be very hard to implement I think, because cricketers have done this for their whole life.”
The ICC in its statement said: “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.
“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.”
