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Cricketers differ on legal ball-tampering

by Barbados Today
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns have been raised about the practice of cricketers using saliva to keep shine on the ball. And some discussion has started within the International Cricket Council on the possibility of allowing Umpire-supervised legal ball-tampering.

But West Indies fast-bowling great and cricket commentator Michael Holding is not in favour of any change to the traditional method. He suggested that if authorities were planning stringent measures, including quarantine, to insure that players in tournaments were COVID-19 free, there should be no problem with the age-old method of shining the ball continuing.

“I don’t understand the logic. I have read that ICC is contemplating preventing people from using saliva on the ball due to Covid-19 and allowing them to use foreign substances on the ball to keep the shine on but in front of the umpire. I don’t understand the logic behind that.

“Before they got to that point they said, if they restart cricket, it has to be played in a bio-secure environment. They were saying cricketers, for instance, would have to isolate themselves for two weeks to make sure that everything was fine for when they got to the venue before the match started. And everyone involved (with the match) will have to do the same thing,” he said.

Holding added: “Now if you are saying everyone is in the bio-secure environment, you are staying in the same hotel, you are not moving for the length of time you are playing the matches, if that is the case, why are you worried about someone’s saliva? That person, according to what you are doing, should be free of Covid-19. If the ICC thinks that the two-week period to prove that you are free of Covid-19 is not foolproof, then that means you are putting everyone in that environment in jeopardy? Why would you want to play cricket under those circumstances? It’s either safe or it’s not. No guessing, please.”

Holding was one of five former international bowlers quizzed on the subject, including India’s Ashish Nehra, Pakistan’s Waqar Younis and Azhar Mahmood and South Africa’s Allan Donald. Donald was all for the idea of tampering with the ball. The former fiery fast bowler said it was something he had been advocating for a very long time.

“I absolutely agree with legalising ball-tampering. I said so in an article sometime in the 2000s. It happens anyway. We see guys throwing the ball on the ground and umpires say to throw it up and it’s pretty obvious what they are doing.

“It could work if it is well-monitored. There’s no reason why, if you are really struggling at the SCG and you are looking for reverse swing, you shouldn’t be able to try and get some by working the ball. It evens the game out,” he said.

Donald explained that he didn’t mean players should be able to bring bottle tops onto the field or bite the ball, but he believed there was scope for working on the ball, if it was well controlled.

“For example, maybe you could throw the ball into the ground for a period of time and that that time elapses. I had never thought of shoe polish. I suppose you’d take a whole box out there and get buffing.

“When I first started, I had a chat with the great Imran Khan and he told me they used to wet one side of the ball a lot, with moisture, with sweat and get it heavy and keep the other side shiny. It was hard work and it took a long time, so if there’s another way, that might also work. We know in baseball they use something, I think it’s still a mystery, to get the ball to swing in and dip,” Donald said.

Younis was all for the retention of using saliva and sweat, noting it was a natural part of the game.

“Not possible to prevent a bowler using his sweat or saliva,” Younis said.

“As a fast bowler, I reject this because this [using saliva and sweat] is a natural process. A ball exchanges hands all day. You run in, huffing and puffing, so you sweat and that gets on the ball. Also, using saliva is natural rather than on intent. It’s a habit and you just can’t control this aspect.

I don’t know how this discussion came up, but I feel people who want the game to be played are frustrated with the lockdown. They are overthinking it. I doubt this new idea of using (artificial) substance instead of saliva is a solution. You can make a bowler use a predefined substance on the ball, but at the same time, practically it’s not possible to prevent a bowler using his sweat or saliva,” Younis added.

Mahmood supported the idea but was concerned on how authorities would be able to monitor what substance was used

“I think the ball manufacturers could have a big role to play in what is used, as they will know best what kind of substance is best suited to the leather that is being used on the ball. It could be that bowlers are allowed to use a small bottle, like a hand sanitiser bottle, of the substance to use as shine on the ball,” Mahmood said.

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