Dilemma For Bowlers With Using Saliva Post Covid-19 Lockdown

Venkatesh Prasad said once the game resumes bowlers should only use sweat because players’ safety cannot be overlooked

Photo: AFP

New Delhi, April 20: Bowlers with a habit of using saliva to shine the ball will now have to reconsider the practice post lockdown. As a consequence of ball-tampering scandal in 2018, the analysis on ball maintenance has got tightened but using saliva and sweat continues to be legal. However, the deadly COVID-19 has shaken the entire world, and hence, former players such feel that the use of saliva may be suspended once cricket resumes post lockdown. Venkatesh Prasad said once the game resumes bowlers should only use sweat because players’ safety cannot be overlooked. Even as it would be difficult to stop using saliva to work up the ball, the former player emphasised it is something that can’t be ignored. "When you are in the thick of things, you tend to forget it. You have to get the upper hand over the batsmen as you can't use anything else besides sweat and saliva. The question is what do you do when the batsman is pulping you? You need to swing the ball and what helps swing the ball is the aerodynamics," the 50-year-old explained. In March when Indian team was to play against South Africa in a three-match ODI series, this particular issue gained a lot of interest. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also gave hints at cutting down on the use of saliva but the bowlers could not be assessed on this as the series was cancelled amid the rising cases of COVID-19 across the world. In the absence of saliva, it is only sweat which can be the other legal source to shine the ball but that can be tricky said, Prasad. "Because not everybody sweats. In that case, you have to keep throwing the ball to someone who sweats. I am someone who doesn't sweat that much whereas Rahul Dravid does," he recalled. Praveen Kumar, popular for his swings said using the right amount of saliva on the ball helped him in the game. "...it is very important for the fast bowlers, also for the spinners, as it helps them generate drift. For an off-spinner, the shiny side on the left will drift the ball away in the air before coming back. It tests the batsman," Kumar said. Kumar, who took a five-wicket haul at Lord's in 2011, admitted that saliva was of great help while opening the bowling as well as reversing the old ball. Even Former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie said it’s time to reconsider the use of saliva in the game. "I don't think it's a quirky question. It's an actual genuine thing to be considered," Gillespie, who took 259 Test wickets, told 'ABC Grandstand'. "I don't think anything is off the table. It could be a point where at the end of each over, the umpires allow the players to shine the ball in front of them but you can only do it then. I don't know. Is it just sweat? Can you only use sweat? "I don't have an answer to that but it certainly will be a conversation that will be had. If you think about it, it is pretty gross," said the cricketer-turned-coach. Prasad, however, reminded that bowling is not just about using sweat and saliva, conditions also matter immensely. "It doesn't matter if you use saliva or not as long as you apply appropriate amount of sweat and shine it off. If the other side tends to get rough (due to dryness), automatically you get reverse swing. (With inputs from PTI)