ICC Recommends Banning The Use Of Saliva To Shine The Ball Among Other Suggestions

The ICC Cricket Committee led by Anil Kumble have come up with certain recommendations regarding rules that should apply once Cricket resumes.

ICC Cricket Committee will be proposing changes to existing rules for a more safer way of conducting matches

The Match Ball

According to the ICC Cricket Committee, there must be changes to the rules of shining the ball using saliva. The recommendation is to completely prohibit the use of saliva and stick to sweat instead. The reason being that there is no hard evidence that proves that the transmission of the virus via sweat.

The head of the Medical Advisory Committee, Dr. Peter Harcourt, personally advised the cricket committee to implement this rule.

The Umpires

On the other hand, the ICC Cricket Committee will be putting forward suggestions regarding the selection of umpires as well. As per the current regulations, the umpires that ICC selects for the matches can not be from the respective countries that are participating in the match.

Unfortunately, several countries are following the border lockdown protocols which makes international travel a hindrance. To overcome this, the Committee is trying to get permission for appointing local officials until air travel returns to normal.

The appointments will be made by local Elite and International Panels referees via ICC. Situations may arise where the country does not have Elite Panel officials. In this case, the best local International Panel officials will take precedent.

Additional Tech Support

Finally, the committee is considering giving each team and extra DRS review per innings. There are chances that a wider pool of umpires will be reeled into every match from around the world. This will be need additional technology support.

The ICC Cricket Committee will be presenting these recommendations to the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee early June.

ICC Cricket Committee Chair Anil Kumble shares his thoughts

“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.”

Related: “We Need to Be Able To Shine The Ball” – Pat Cummins Against Not Shining The Ball Using Sweat and Saliva