Warner unconvinced about banning saliva for ball-shining

Amidst a growing debate around whether saliva should be used to shine a cricket ball, David Warner has stuck his hand up for the traditional ball-shining practices that have been going around for “hundreds of years” to continue.

Cricket, when it gets going again after this Coronavirus sabbatical, will do so on a cautious note in reported biosecure stadiums — although there’s very little clarity about what exactly those might entail. Even then, how safe will it be to shine the ball with saliva is a bit of a burning question. The ICC is said to be pondering over ways to maintain the condition of the ball and keep the bowlers in the game but the arguments around it among other stakeholders of the game continue.

Warner has his doubts about doing away with saliva. Even with all the precautions, he reckons the players will still be sharing dressing rooms, so saliva on the ball might not necessarily be how the virus is transmitted.

“It’s (shining the ball with saliva) been going around for hundreds of years now, I can’t recall anyone that’s got sick by doing that,” Warner told cricket.com.au. “You’re sharing change rooms and you’re sharing everything else, I don’t see why you have to change that. If you’re going to contract a bug, I don’t think it’d necessarily be just from that.

“I’m not too sure but it’s not my place to comment on whether or not we should or shouldn’t. It’s up to the ICC and the governing bodies to decide.”

Former India bowler Zaheer Khan had a completely different take on the issue. He reckoned that shining the ball with saliva doesn’t just put the players at risk but also the crowd in attendance at the venue.

“The issue has to be addressed. It’s not just one individual putting saliva on the ball, it’s usually the entire playing eleven,” Zaheer said on Fame Dubai Live. “When you’re playing in a packed stadium and the ball has gone out for a six, it actually might have gone into the crowd and touched people’s hands. So there’s a question mark on the practice (of shining the ball with saliva) there. There’s a high chance of something transmitting through the ball.”

Michael Hussey finds the idea of shining the ball with artificial substances under surveillance a bit “dodgy” and reckons cricket is going back to its old ways after a while. “I don’t like the thought of artificial substances being put on the ball. I hope there aren’t many changes being made to the game and things will fall in place again in the long run. The first season may look a little different but I am hopeful we will get through all this and get back to doing what we love,” he told TOI in a chat.

Bangladesh pacer Ebadat Hossain has already admitted that life’s going to be tough for the bowlers if the ball-shining takes a hit. “It is very tough to survive without shining the ball, especially in Test cricket,” he told Fame Dubai. “If saliva is restricted, I hope we will be allowed to use something else to shine the ball.”