Australia’s fast bowler Pat Cummins speaks on how he has accepted the risk of using saliva to shine the cricket ball. He admits that such a habit will be difficult to get rid of and wants the ICC to provide an alternate option to the bowlers for the same.
Pat Cummins wants cricket`s lawmakers to allow the use of an artificial substance to shine the ball. His comments came after the ICC cricket committee recommended banning the use of saliva due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Shining the ball is an integral part of Test cricket. It helps the bowlers to swing the ball both ways. It is a traditional practice for the bowlers to use saliva to shine the ball. However, the practice is unsafe now as the CoronaVirus spreads through the medium of spits and droplets. Therefore, the ICC’s medical committee has raised the issue of saliva being unsafe.
Cricket.com.au. quoted Pat Cummins saying, “If we remove saliva, we have to have another option. Sweat is not bad, but I think we need something more than that, ideally. Whatever that is, wax or I don’t know what. If that’s what that science is telling us, that it’s a high risk using saliva … as long as we’re keeping other options open, whether that’s sweat or something artificial.”
The 27-year-old pacer is currently ranked no.1 in ICC Test bowler rankings. He shares how sweat is a viable substitute to saliva for shining the ball. Cummins said, “We have to be able to shine the ball somehow so I’m glad they’ve let sweat remain. We’ve just got to make sure at the start of the spell we’re sweating and we’re nice and warm.”
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Australian sports gear manufacturer Kookaburra had earlier this month claimed that it had developed a wax applicator which can keep the balls shinning without the usage of saliva or sweat.
Cummins also expresses his desire to see cricket return back to its normal capacity where they can again start using saliva to shine the ball. “Hopefully we’ll get to a stage where saliva is deemed safe. Hopefully, we can go back to that, to how it was,” he said.
