Cricket to enter brave new world after saliva ban

An International Cricket Council board meeting on Wednesday could see the global governing body uphold a recommendation to prohibit the use of saliva in order to stop the transmission of the coronavirus.

Bowlers traditionally get the ball to move or swing in the
air, thereby making it harder for batsmen to hit, by applying shine to one side
via sweat — which can still be used — or saliva.

However, as a temporary measure to combat COVID-19, the
ICC’s cricket committee has suggested banning the use of saliva.

AFP Sport shines a light on the issue:

Massie’s match

One of the most extraordinary individual performances in
cricket history saw Australia swing bowler Bob Massie take 16 for 137 on his
Test debut against England at Lord’s in 1972.

Yet Massie won just five more caps and took only 15 more
wickets, with the bowler himself saying he had struggled on a subsequent tour
of the West Indies where he adjusted his action and was never the same
cricketer again.

Massie’s remarkable maiden Test and the lavish swing he
generated at Lord’s led to suggestions he’d applied lip salve to the ball in
order to maintain the shine — an accusation he has always denied.

“Some days things go just right,” Massie said by
way of explaining his remarkable introduction to Test cricket.

Reverse swing

It used to be thought that as a cricket ball got older it
would swing less.

But a technique pioneered by Pakistan paceman Sarfraz Nawaz,
partly in response to the slow and batsmen-friendly pitches of his homeland,
led to the development of reverse swing.

“Just using sweat won’t be of much help because that
will only make the ball wet and that shine will be missing,” said Sarfraz.

Sarfraz confused a succession of batsmen by bowling
in-swingers with an old ball.

He helped compatriot Imran Khan add reverse swing to his
armoury and in the 1990s there were probably no better exponents than the
Pakistan fast-bowling duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

In 1992, the pair took 43 wickets between them as Pakistan
won a five-match Test series in England 2-1.

Mint condition

Over time, teams all round the world came to realise that in
order to generate reverse swing it was vital the ball was ‘looked after’
properly, with one side polished and the other kept bone dry.

Swing bowlers such as Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard and
Simon Jones were pivotal to England regaining the Ashes from Australia in 2005.

But it was England opening batsman Marcus Trescothick who
later revealed he had put Murray Mints sweets to good use in the field because
sucking them stimulated most saliva, which could then be applied to the ball.

Play on with Pollock?

It seems unlikely cricket chiefs will row back from the
saliva ban but former South Africa paceman Shaun Pollock, even though he is a
member of the ICC cricket committee, gave current swing bowlers a glimmer of
hope by suggesting health checks in place for next month’s behind closed doors
three-Test series between England and the West Indies might make it redundant.

“I think the environment that’ll end up being created
is almost going to be like a bubble,” Pollock told the Following On
Cricket Podcast.

“People will get tested, they’ll go into a two-week
camp where they’re just going to sit and monitor how the conditions of their
bodies change. And if there are no symptoms, it doesn’t really matter about
shining the ball then, because you’re in the bubble and no one you come into
contact with will have coronavirus. So you can just get on with normal
proceedings.”

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/sports/2020/06/cricket-to-enter-brave-new-world-after-saliva-ban/