Former England spinner Monty Panesar has backed the idea of banning the usage of saliva on the ball, but he has insisted that the International Cricket Council (ICC) to bring an alternative like wax to for the bowlers to shine the ball.
“You can have wax which can be used throughout the Test match, you could apply it on the ball to shine the ball, this will be a good option. Look, at the end of the day you cannot make the game too batsmen friendly because then it will be difficult for the bowlers to take wickets,” Panesar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“The wax can be tried perhaps in training first, but we need some sort of substance on the ball because if there is no substance and saliva is banned, the game might become batsmen dominant,” he added.
Panesar was also asked if the ban on saliva would affect the spinners. He said, “Yeah, I agree that saliva ban is only going to impact the fast bowlers, spinners tend to spin the bowl, maybe they drift it a little bit and that’s about it.”
Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar had suggested the same during a conversation with Brett Lee. The Master Blaster proposed that a new ball should be allowed to take by the bowling team after every 40-50 overs, instead of 80 overs, in a Test match. However, he made sure that it must be optional and not compulsory.
Tendulkar further suggested that both the umpires can contain a bottle of wax and a bowling team should be allowed to use a particular amount of that material each innings to shine the ball.
The ICC Cricket Committee, led by former Indian captain Anil Kumble, suggested the international governing body of cricket to ban the use of saliva on the ball. The ICC then in its Board meeting in May decided to put a temporary end to the use of saliva.