Reports | Post COVID-19, ICC might legalise ball tampering to compensate for no saliva use
As Coronavirus outbreak created a ripple around the world of cricket, the ICC is contemplating to legalise ball tampering to compensate for no saliva use in the immediate aftermath of the sport. If that happens, one of the greatest taboos of the sport will forever be buried under soil for good.
ICC's medical committee brought it up that the use of saliva to polish the ball is a problem and needs to be addressed before cricket can resume. However, that will be compromising with a pace bowler's ability to move the ball, for which the ICC is working on lateral thinking to the extent that they might allow legalised ball-tampering in front of the umpire.
ESPN Cricinfo reported the same that the ICC is open to the option of allowing for the use of an agreed artificial substance under the supervision of the umpires. Kookaburra, Dukes and SG balls will respond to the outside substances like leather moisturiser, wax or shoe polish but that requires a certain level of shoe polish. Former Australian pacer, Jason Gillespie also spoke about the same, adding that nothing is off the table.
"I don't think anything is off the table. It could be a point where at the end of each over, the umpires allow the players to shine the ball in front of them but you can only do it then. I don't have an answer to that but it certainly will be a conversation that will be had. If you think about it, it is pretty gross," Jason Gillespie recently told ABC Grandstand.
However, that needs the approval of ICC Cricket Committee, which will meet via video conference in late May or early June, and MCC's world cricket committee, which cancelled its most recent meeting, scheduled for Colombo in Sri Lanka in late March. If the decision gets the approval, it will be a huge change in the sport, especially the ball-tampering which is still a taboo.