Former South African pace bowling great Shaun Pollock believes that cricket can resume normally and even the usage of saliva to shine the ball won’t pose any health risk in case the matches are played inside bio-secure environment.
Notably, the ICC Cricket Committee had recently recommended a ban on the usage of saliva to shine the ball but allowed sweat in view of the health threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic. England are preparing a bio-secure environment to host the West Indies behind closed doors in a series that mark cricket resumption post the COVID-19 break.
“I think the environment that’ll end up being created is almost going to be like a bubble. People will get tested, they’ll go into a two-week camp where they’re just going to sit and monitor how the conditions of their bodies change,” Pollock told the ‘Following On Cricket Podcast’.
“And if there are no symptoms, it doesn’t really matter about shining the ball then, because you’re in the bubble and no one you come into contact with will have coronavirus. So you can just get on with normal proceedings.”
“I’d presume that there’d be no crowds in place, every single environment they go into would be cleaned down and sprayed, and everything along those lines,” said Pollock.
Meanwhile, a decision on what would happen to the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played later this year is likely to be taken during the ICC board meeting on Wednesday.
(With inputs from PTI)