By Shubham Dalmia on 22nd June 2020
So good news for all the cricket fans after almost 4 months, the game of cricket is going to be back with West Indies tour of England test series which starts from 8th of July. This was the first time me and every cricket lover was separated from cricket for such a long period of time. But now there is no need to be disappointed any more because cricket is nearly back.
But some decision and safety measures been taken by the ICC (INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL) that use of the saliva will be prohibited to shine the bowl. According to them it is very unhygienic. So there is not much left for the bowlers now, specially in test cricket and we all know that there has been many rules in the past which haven’t favoured the bowlers and now they have come up with another idea of not using saliva on the bowl.
When making the decision ICC should have comes up with some advantage for the bowlers allowing something sort of a new substance because this is not fair for the bowlers. Because when cricket will be played in cold conditions like New Zealand, England, Ireland the chance of having sweat in your body body is very minimal and there is no other option of shinning the ball.
So personally as a fan ,I think that it’s unfair for the bowlers. We all know that in this tough period of coronavirus there can be a risky in using the saliva or the sweat, but my point is why should it always will be bowlers who has to sacrifice, cricket should not only be remembered as a batsman game it’s should be neutral and both the sides should be treated in the same manner.
So many fans must be thinking what are the options that remains for the bowlers. Some of the options I feel can be reliable for the bowlers is use of a new ball every 45-50 overs in test cricket instead of using it after 80 overs. In odi cricket, there are two new balls used from both the sides of pitch which means with one ball, a team bowls only 25 overs. Keeping that in mind, is it really possible to bowl 80 overs with one ball without using the sweat and saliva on it because with the help of these, as the ball gets older in the 45th-50th over, the bowler would apply these natural substances in one side of the ball which helps them to reverse swing the ball. So if you are now banned to use these natural substances then ICC should allow the bowling side to get a new ball after every 45th-50th overs, or, instead of giving them a new ball, they can change the ball and give them a semi new ball with good condition and better shine so it allows them to swing the ball.
Other options I think would benefit the bowlers is that in the early years of cricket, bowlers used to apply wax or cream on the ball to keep the shine on it but as the game evolved, it also got banned from cricket. Now if you are not allowed to use any natural substances, I think it’s time to bring these wax or cream substances to play, atleast till using saliva or sweat is prohibited. It’s also fair to say that this same process shouldn’t be applied like in the earlier days when the players used this wax on the ball how much they wanted but now I think, the umpires should be carrying the bottle of wax or cream and be the one to judge how much of it can be fair to both the bowlers and the batsmen because a wax or a cream can create much greater impact on the ball than the saliva or sweat.
I also think the decision of not using the salvia or sweat makes no sense. In a test match after the completion of day 1 or day 2, when the players are on the field for another day and if one player is positive he/she can spread the infection automatically on the remaining players if the corona test doesn’t happen prior to every day’s play, so saying that use of saliva or sweat is unhygienic makes no sense, and other thing is that when the spectators are allowed to come and watch the match in a stadium and when a batsman hits the ball for a six, if one of the spectators is positive and they touch the ball then it can create so much trouble for both the players and the spectators because it is not possible to check every spectators whether they are corona positive or negative.
So, ICC should allow the use of saliva and sweat or bring different substances to give some fairness to the bowlers. If they are all corona negative, applying the saliva and sweat on it won’t harm anybody.
That’s my opinion on the Future Of Cricket in the period of covid 19 and share my ideas how it can help the bowlers with different ideas. So hope for the best and be ready to enjoy some action of cricket again.
THAT CRICKET GUY 