ICC Cricket Committee allows use of sweat instead of saliva to aid swing bowling
Anil Kumble chairs the ICC Committee
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The Anil Kumble-led ICC Cricket Committee has unanimously recommended the usage of sweat instead of saliva in the post-coronavirus world but was not in support of using artificial substances. The committee has also recommended that home umpires will temporarily replace neutral umpires.
After reports from Dr Peter Harcourt, the ICC's chief medical advisor, on how cricket can safely resume and rules and changes to the playing conditions, the ICC Cricket Committee, chaired by Anil Kumble, sat down on May 18 through video conference to discuss the possible changes to the rules in the post corona world. One of the most important decisions to have taken in the meeting was that sweat can be used to shine the ball but saliva has been banned altogether.
"We are living through extraordinary times and the recommendations the committee have made today are interim measures to enable us to safely resume cricket in a way that preserves the essence of our game whilst protecting everyone involved. 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,” Kumble quoted as saying by an ICC media release, reported ESPN Cricinfo.
“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."
The ICC cricket committee, which comprises Anil Kumble, Andrew Strauss, Mahela Jayawardene, Rahul Dravid, Tim May, Mickey Arthur, David White, Richard Illingworth, Ranjan Madugalle, John Stephenson, Kyle Coetzer, Shaun Pollock, Belinda Clark, David Kendix, Shashank Manohar, Manu Sawhney and Clive Hitchcock, also decided that ICC should relax the 2002 rule in which only neutral umpires conduct a Test match. The committee is of the opinion that in the face of the travel bans across the world with borders being closed, local match officials will be appointed in the short-term.
However, in order to tackle that, the ICC committee suggested that the teams will be given an additional DRS, which will prevent the bias in umpiring.
"Given the challenges of international travel with borders being closed, limited commercial flights and mandatory quarantine periods, the Committee recommended that local match officials be appointed in the short-term. The use of technology is increased to support the appointments of a wider pool of umpires from around the world and has proposed an additional DRS review per team per innings is introduced in each format as an interim measure."
