Bumrah seeks 'alternative' to saliva on cricket ball
Indian paceman Jasprit Bumrah said cricket should seek an "alternative" for shining the ball if the game's governing body ban the utilization of saliva through the coronavirus pandemic.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will probably implement a ban for the game's return when they meet next week after acquiring medical advice that spit poses a COVID-19 transmission risk.
Handshakes, celebratory high-fives and hugs are also apt to be off-limits when international cricket resumes with safety protocols set up.
"I was not a lot of a hugger anyway, rather than a high-five person as well, in order that doesn't trouble me a lot," Bumrah said within an ICC video chat with the former West Indies pace bowler Ian Bishop and the ex-captain of South Africa, Shaun Pollock.
"The thing that interests me is the saliva bit," added the 26-year-old Bumrah.
"I don't know what guidelines that we need to follow when we come back, but I feel there must be an alternative.
"If the ball is not well maintained, it's problematic for the bowlers. The lands are getting shorter and shorter, the wickets are becoming flatter and flatter. So we are in need of something."
Pace bowlers usually make an effort to make the ball swing through the air by shining one side on the clothing aided through the use of sweat or saliva and leaving the other half to become scuffed.
Anil Kumble, chairman of the ICC cricket committee that recommended banning saliva, insisted the move was only an "interim measure".
Australian cricket ball manufacturer Kookaburra is developing a wax applicator that allows players to shine the ball without using saliva or sweat.
But its use would desire a change in the laws of cricket which forbid the application of any artificial substance to improve the ball.
Test players have during the past been accused of using lozenges, vaseline and resin to keep the shine on your golf ball, and in addition scuffing it with bottle tops, trouser zippers, grit or fingernails.
The most notorious recent incident was in 2018, when Australian players attemptedto alter the ball with sandpaper during a Test against South Africa in Cape Town, leading to lengthy bans for the three involved -- Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
Bumrah, who has emerged as India's lead paceman since his Test debut in 2018, has claimed 68 wickets in 14 Tests and 104 scalps in 64 one-day internationals.
