ICC mulling legalisation of ball-tampering after cricket resumes

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is pondering legalising the act of polishing the ball with artificial substances after cricket resumes following the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 has made the players wary of using saliva on the leather and it’s now likely to be legalised.

As per reports, the administrators are “open to the option of allowing for the use of an agreed artificial substance to polish the ball under the supervision of the umpires”. The same is considered as ball-tampering according to the current rules of the sport.

The issue off applying saliva was put forth by the ICC’s medical committee and it would be addressed before the resumption of cricket. The committee, headed by Peter Harcourt, shared an update after the ICC’s chief executives meeting on Thursday, April 23.

“Our next step is to create a roadmap for the resumption of international cricket which will include criteria for decision making and a checklist for what needs to happen,” Harcourt was quoted as saying in India Today.

“This will consider everything from player preparation to government restrictions and advisories and bio-bubbles. The scale and complexity of getting cricket started again cannot be underestimated particularly with respect to a global event,” he added.

Currently, the cricket world has come to a standstill due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the grave situation, a number of tournaments have either been cancelled or been postponed.

Hazlewood concerned about the change

Shining the ball with the saliva helps the bowlers to generate movement even it gets old. Josh Hazlewood, the Australian fast bowler, had his opinions on it. As per the speedster, in Test cricket, not using sweat or saliva could cause a whole lot of difficulty for the bowlers to get wickets. He also had a suggestion that one person can be assigned to use saliva.

“I think the white ball would be fine, (but) Test cricket would be very hard. Bowlers rely on any sort of sideways movement in the air. If you didn’t maintain the ball at all for 80 overs it would be quite easy to bat after that initial shine has gone. Whether you use saliva or sweat, maybe one person can do it,” Hazlewood said.