ICC recommended to disallow the use of saliva to shine the ball

Cricket's highest governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has been asked to disallow players from using saliva while attempting to maintain the shine of the ball during matches. ICC cricket committee chariman Anil Kumble and his panel members, heavily influenced by the COVID-19 outbreak, have laid out a series of recommendations to this effect.

Kumble spoke about the extraordinary times that the world is currently going through and therefore listed out certain changes to look after the health of the people involved in bringing the game of cricket back to the field.

ICC disallows use of saliva to shine the ball

Although the use of saliva to maintain the shine of the ball was dissuaded, ICC continued its decision to use sweat as an option after it was made clear that the transmission of the virus through sweat was highly unlikely.

ICC Cricket Committee Chair Anil Kumble's statement:

In this regard, the chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Anil Kumble said:

“We are living through extraordinary times and the recommendations the Committee have made today are interim measures to enable us to safely resume cricket in a way that preserves the essence of our game whilst protecting everyone involved.”

Other recommendations by the ICC Cricket Committee

There were a few other recommendations proposed by the Kumble-led committee to facilitate a safe return of international cricket. The said recommendations involved changing rules relating to neutral umpiring and about enhancing technological help to local umpires..

Relaxing the rule of non-neutral umpires in all international games

The committee asked for leniency in the system of non-neutral umpires in international matches. This move will prevent travelling of neutral umpires to different parts of the world and help ICC to increase their pool of local umpires who would get some international experience under their belt.

Use of an extra DRS referral on an interim basis

The increased pool of local umpires would be given the cushion of extra technological support for a brief period as a temporary measure. The ICC media release said the following in this regard:

"Given the challenges of international travel with borders being closed, limited commercial flights and mandatory quarantine periods, the Committee recommended that local match officials be appointed in the short-term."

👉 Use of saliva to shine ball is prohibited, sweat allowed👉 Local umpires to be used for international fixturesThe ICC Cricket Committee has made recommendations for measures to be implemented for the return of international cricket 👇

— ICC (@ICC) May 18, 2020