The BCCI is thinking about letting players use saliva on the ball again in the Indian Premier League, which starts on March 22. This idea has been talked about a lot within the BCCI, and they’re going to bring it up with all the IPL team captains at a meeting in Mumbai on Thursday. The International Cricket Council (ICC) stopped the old practice of using saliva to shine the ball when COVID-19 hit, just to be safe. They made the ban permanent in 2022. The IPL also followed the ICC’s ban, but they don’t have to listen to the ICC.
A BCCI official told PTI, Using saliva was a key part of cricket before COVID. Now that the threat is gone, we think it’s okay to lift the ban in the IPL.
He added, We know it matters more in red ball cricket, but if it helps bowlers in the white ball game too, why not allow it in the IPL? It’s a tournament that sets trends. We’ll see what the captains say.
If the IPL changes the rule, the ICC might have to rethink their decision too.
During the ICC Champions Trophy, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami said we need to bring back saliva to make the game more balanced for bowlers.
Players like Vernon Philander and Tim Southee agreed with Shami.
Shami said in Dubai, We keep asking to use saliva again so we can get reverse swing back. It’ll make the game more watchable. India won that event, by the way.
Right now, if a player uses saliva on the ball for the first time, the captain gets a warning.
The IPL rules from last year say, If it happens again in the same innings, the captain gets a final warning. If it happens a third time, the player who used saliva gets fined either 10 lakh or 25% of their match fee, whichever is less.
