“I Find The ICC’s ‘No Saliva-Yes Sweat’ Decision Strange” – Matthew Hayden

The ICC Cricket Committee is preparing to make a suggestion about changing the rules of shining he ball during the next meeting. The idea here is to ban the use of saliva when bowlers wish to shine the ball. Unfortunately, several players are against this rule. Matthew Hayden is one such player who believes this rule does not make much sense and is “strange”.

Matthew Hayden does not support the no saliva-yes sweat rule that ICC is trying to implement once Cricket resumes

According to Hayden, the ICC banning the use of saliva yet continuing to allow sweat for shining the ball is not practical. Certain things are important in cricket and changing these rules do not help. He believes that the best way to approach this is making sure every player who steps on-field tests negative for Coronavirus.

“I find the ICC’s ‘no saliva-yes sweat’ decision strange. These are things which are integral to cricket and I don’t know how it’s going to change. The more sensible option is to test the players properly and ensure that they are COVID negative. If the players in action are virus-free, they should be allowed to use both.”

Furthermore, Matthew Hayden is strictly against plans of resuming the game without an audience. His notion is that the spectators are biggest stakeholders of the game and without them the essence is lost.

“Cricket with empty galleries doesn’t look good at all. It definitely takes away the charm of the sport.”

The Australian commentator is of the opinion that IPL 2020 and T20 2020 will not take place as per schedule

Finally, he comments about two of the biggest tournaments of 2020 that are facing consequences of the virus. The first is Indian Premier League (IPL 2020). There is minimum to no chance of the event actually taking place. Next is the T20 World Cup scheduled for October 2020.

Hayden is of the opinion that moving forward with any of these events without an audience is unlikely. Both of these are global events and the committees should make decisions after taking every aspect into consideration.

Coming to the players, Matthew Hayden said that the players have been confined within four walls for a while now. Therefore, when the game resumes it’ll be as though the players are coming out of retirement. It will take a couple of weeks before the game resumes with full force.

“It will take a couple of weeks to get back into match mode, but it shouldn’t be a huge problem because athletes at this level are doing the training necessary to stay in shape.”