After ICC banned the use of saliva to shine the cricket ball, Australian pace bowler, Mitchell Starc has come up with a warning that this move would result into boring cricket. As the fielding team will not have the permission to shine the ball, it will not swing or seam even in pace-friendly conditions.
The Coronavirus pandemic has compelled ICC to change certain rules of cricket. Currently, the regions where there are lesser cases are actively playing cricket tournaments. One of the rules implemented by ICC is the ban of saliva usage.
Reacting to the saliva ban imposed by ICC, Starc said in a video conference:
“I understand that completely and hear what they’re saying in terms of a foreign substance, but whether that can be controlled by the umpires in terms of they have a portion of the wax and you can only use a small amount, I don’t know, but there needs to be a maintaining of the even contest.”
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Furthermore, he talked about the enormous debate and continued:
“Whether it be the wickets being not as flat or at least considering this shining wax to a degree, there needs to be some thought on that, I think. I guess you use both those things [saliva and sweat] to shine the ball. I’ve probably been a bit more on the sweat side, just trying to not get my hands in my mouth too much.”
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Hence, Mitchell Starc had a unique reaction to the ‘No Saliva, Yes Sweat’ rule.
