Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has again called for an alternative of saliva as he argued that it would then be an uneven contest if the bowlers are not allowed to shine the ball.
The cricketer-turned-politician had earlier said the same after it came to the light that the ICC was reportedly contemplating to prevent the use of body fluids on the ball to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus among the cricketers.
“It will be the hardest thing for the bowlers. The ICC have to come out with an alternative. Without shining the ball, I don’t think it will be an even contest between bat and ball,” Gambhir said as quoted by IANS.
“If they don’t allow using saliva, they will have to come up with an alternative to help the bowlers to shine the ball. It’s going to be very important otherwise there would be no fun watching cricket,” he added.
After an ESPNcricinfo report had stated that ICC during its meeting considered the use of artificial substances like vaseline to shine the ball in order to keep the players away from using saliva and sweat to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, speculations have gone wild about the new development in cricket.
Earlier, the Indian Test team vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane had refused to give an outright opinion and chose to wait to see what the officials decide.
Veteran cricketers like David Warner and Harbhajan Singh criticised the consideration. While Warner said the ban on saliva was not enough to contain the spread of the virus, Harbhajan opined that saliva and sweat were important components for cricketers to shine the ball.
Among others, batting great Sachin Tendulkar said players would anyway be wary of using saliva to shine the ball, while Pakistan legend Waqar Younis supported the use of spit.
Retired fast-bowlers like Ashish Nehra and Michael Holding dismissed the whole idea of not using saliva and sweat and slammed the governing bodies for even considering such a plan.