Applying saliva on Cricket ball: Why new ICC Cricket rules bars bowlers from applying saliva to shine the ball?

Applying saliva on Cricket ball: Players are set to be prohibited altogether from applying saliva to the Cricket ball as per MCC’s new rule.

As part of a new set of law changes, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) on Wednesday, decided to completely prohibit or ban the usage of saliva to shine Cricket ball. The new amendment regarding the same would come into effect from October 2022 onwards.

As per the MCC, from October 1 onwards, applying saliva on the ball would be considered as an unfair practice.

It is worth of a mention that the International Cricket Council (ICC), in June 2020, as part of an interim change had banned the usage of saliva, albeit providing some leniency in terms of a couple of warnings to the maximum punishment of a reward of five penalty runs to the batting side based upon the umpire’s discretion.

Applying saliva on Cricket ball had little or no impact on swing

The MCC, on Wednesday remarked its research found that applying saliva had no impact on the ball’s movement.

“MCC’s research found that this had little or no impact on the amount of swing the bowlers were getting. Players were using sweat to polish the ball, and this was equally effective,” it said.

“The new Laws will not permit the use of saliva on the ball, which also removes any grey areas of fielders eating sugary sweets to alter their saliva to apply to the ball. Using saliva will be treated the same way as any other unfair methods of changing the condition of the ball,” it further added.

Furthermore, the MCC also made a welcoming move to remove ‘Mankad’ from Law 41 (unfair play) to Law 38 (run out) in its attempt to de-stigmatise the run-out dismissals at the non-striker’s end, the necessity of which arose due to the batter’s tendency to back up too far before the bowler bowled the delivery.

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