Vaseline doesn't even ensure conventional swing, says Ashish Nehra
BCCI
Ashish Nehra has stated that Vaseline can never be a replacement for saliva and sweat when it comes to shining the ball while adding that the product doesn't even ensure conventional swing. Nehra further added that Vaseline can keep the shine on the ball but doesn't make the ball heavy.
ICC's medical committee brought up the fact 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. To aid the conventional swing, it has been reported that products Vaseline might be used, but that didn't find a taker in Ashish Nehra.
"Get one thing clear at the onset. The ball will not swing if you don't apply sweat or saliva on the ball. That's the basic necessity of swing bowling. The moment ball gets scuffed up from one side, sweat and saliva must be applied on the other side," Nehra told PTI.
"Now let's understand why do you need saliva? Sweat is heavier than saliva but both are heavy enough to make one side of the ball heavier for reverse swing. Vaseline comes into the picture only after sweat and saliva, not before that.Ā It is lighter and doesn't even ensure conventional swing. It can keep the shine but doesn't make the ball heavy," the World Cup-winning former pacer said.
Although former English pacerĀ John Lever rubbed Vaseline onto one side of the ball to extract swing, with the help of his bowling partner Bob Willis, there have been no proven usage of the same in international cricket. It was a dark period in English cricket, with their series victory being tainted for the same. Nehra, a crafty swing bowler himself, stated that Lever, during that Chennai Test against India in 1977, must haveĀ used sweat and saliva and then applied vaseline.
"I can bet Lever used sweat and saliva and then applied vaseline. Vaseline only helps the ball to skid and nothing more. You apply vaseline only, the ball will just go straight. You can check that with any fast bowler," Nehra added.
