Will be a tough habit to break – Kountouris on using saliva for ball shining

We know now that the days of a cricketer licking his or her fingers and applying saliva on the ball may be gone for good. Not to forget giving high-fives or hugs to their teammates. But could cricketers actually train themselves to completely unlearn and stop doing what is almost second nature to them on the field? Could they potentially betray their own muscle memory?

Alex Kountouris is no stranger to the quirks and ticks of cricketers when they’re on the field. He’s been around cricket and national team dressing-rooms long enough for that. And speaking on Wednesday, Kontouris, Australian cricket’s sports science and sports medicine manager, admitted that there will be slip-ups with regards to players towing the line of the ICC’s newly announced health guidelines.

“It’s going to be a tough habit to break. Some people are used to licking their fingers before they grab the ball. People are used to shining the ball with their fingers. There’s going to be a steep learning curve and hopefully we’ve got time to practice some of that stuff but yeah there are going to be mistakes at some point,” said the veteran physio.

So what happens if a cricketer does fail to break out of the habit in the heat of the moment and his fingers make contact with the ball after grazing his tongue. Or what if a bowler feels obliged to give a fielder who’s pulled off the most remarkable catch, a big hug. Would these acts warrant them being penalised? Not according to Kountouris.

“I don’t think we’ve worked out how we are going to deal with those mistakes, what the outcome will be. I imagine we are going to take a common-sense approach and understand that people make mistakes and things are not going to be perfect. But if we can do most things right, most of the time, we are going to ok,” he said.

In more positive news, Kountouris did reveal that Australia’s overall handling of the pandemic country-wide was a positive sign for the potential return of cricket Down Under, both domestic and international. He even hinted that the possibility was rather bright of first-class cricket starting as per schedule towards the end of September.

“We’re at the moment really happy with the fact that we can get back to training. So, a month or so ago, things looked bleak. The country has done really well. We’ve all sort of banded together and got to this position where we are starting to get out and about, to be able to start getting back to training. From a sport perspective, there’s obviously a long way to go. If things don’t go wrong here, of course we are on track to gradually move through each of the different stages,” he said.

“It’s dependent on whether we are allowed to travel, domestically, and whether borders are open between countries and we don’t have an outbreak and a cluster. There’s a whole bunch of factors but certainly if everything goes well, we are on track and we’re quietly confident that things will go to plan and we’ll be ready at the start of the season,” Kontouris added.

The ICC guidelines announced earlier this week have allowed the use of sweat to shine the ball, which is slightly different to those published by the Australian Institute of Sport. According to the AIS, the use of both saliva and sweat are deemed as risks in terms of spreading an infection. And Kountouris believed that these were still early days and that there wasn’t “enough evidence” to support either theory, not when the AIS published their recommendations as part of the ‘Framework for Rebooting Sport in a Covid-19 Environment’, “and to be honest there still isn’t”.

“The sweat, saliva and the ball itself is only one risk factor. There’s a whole bunch of other stuff: hygiene, sanitisation, physical distancing. There’s a heap of things, not sharing equipment that are going to be part of the overall risk. So we’re going to take our time and consider all those factors, one at a time, then work with the ICC to try to come up with whatever the final outcome is for elite cricket and community cricket,” said Kontouris.

“It’s specific around no sharing of equipment for starters, that’s eliminating one risk factor, and it’s specific around the need to clean things that are shared. We haven’t gone into the detail of what particular bits of equipment are shared and what needs to be disinfected because if someone is using their own equipment then the risk is abated. But there are strict hygiene and sanitising processes in place,” he explained further.

Kountouris also revealed that Cricket Australia was also considering the use of disinfectants on the balls that will be in play. It’s a practice that’s so far been tested in the National Rugby League (NRL) before the season was suspended two months ago. Manly in particular were one club who had their support staff on the sidelines washing every ball that was being used, especially those that flew into the stands, during the game with disinfectants. But Kontouris wasn’t sure if they would be as useful on cricket balls.

“We haven’t tested it yet. We’ll obviously have to get permission from the ICC, there’s a lot of things and to see whether it’s effective or not. The ball being leather it’s is harder to disinfect because it’s got little nooks and crevices, so we don’t know how effective it’s going to be, we don’t know how infected the ball is going to get and we don’t know if it’s going to be allowed. It is an absolute consideration. Everything is on the table and everything is being considered,” he said.

He also felt that Australia had the advantage of being able to see how other countries deal with hosting and playing cricket post the pandemic.

“From an Australian cricket perspective, probably other countries are going to play before us so we’ve got a chance to work with the ICC and the other countries to see what they come up with and take whatever steps we need to for making sure there’s a lower risk,” he said.