Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra feels restricting a bowler from shining the ball with saliva or sweat will result in yet another ‘murder’ of the bowler. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Australia is likely to allow artificial substances to shine the ball instead of using one’s sweat and saliva, according to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
The decision has been taken to cut down the risk of contagious infection. Artificial substances might be introduced under the supervision of the umpires. In a podcast show with ESPNcricinfo, Nehra rejected the idea of restricting the use of sweat and saliva.
'Not using sweat or saliva is a murder of bowlers'
So ball-tampering may be legal now? It's not as straight-forward as it sounds, the #StumpMic crew explores…@danbrettig | Nagraj Gollapudi | @iyerant
ESPN Radio ? https://t.co/GmwQvadGPM
Spotify ? https://t.co/lmhYZ91chE pic.twitter.com/nnWwqD30Oh— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 2, 2020
“What is ball-tampering? One side of the ball you scratch with your nails. bottle caps, spikes. But if you scratch the ball from one side, it doesn’t mean the ball swings. You have to put your sweat, your saliva, your Murray Mints, whatever it is. Then from the other side the ball becomes heavy and it reverse swings. If the ball is rough from both sides, it is not going to swing.” the 41-year-old said.
Ashish Nehra slams Cricket Australia’s call to ban the use of saliva, sweat
Nehra urged the ICC to take two more months and let proceedings take plays in the same manner instead of tweaking with the current rules. But to not use one’s own sweat and saliva on the ball is ‘one more murder’ of the bowlers according to the ex-Indian seamer.
Australia batsman David Warner had earlier claimed that using saliva and sweat to shine the ball is a process that has been going around for hundreds of years now. The southpaw feels banning the use of saliva won’t make much of a difference as a cricketer would anyways share the dressing with fellow teammates. Warner feels there are many ways by which one could get infected by Covid-19.