File image of Pat Cummins
There has been a lot out the non-usage of saliva and sweat to shine the ball in the post-COVID-19 world in a bid to keep away the dangers of transmitting the novel virus. And while ICC is contemplating the idea of allowing ball-tampering, some are questioning the extent to which the allowance would be provided to the bowlers while many are against the idea of stopping the use of spit and sweat. Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins on Saturday joined the latter bandwagon, expressing that it would take away the essence from Test cricket allowing the batters to score more and more runs.
“As a fast bowler, I think you’ve got to be able to shine the ball,” he said in an interview on the website of his Indian Premier League team, the Kolkata Knight Riders (kkr.in).
“Why everyone loves test cricket is because it has so much art to it. You have swing bowlers, spinners, you have all these different aspects that make test cricket what it is.
“I think if you can’t shine the ball, that takes away swing bowling, that takes away reverse swing bowling and I just don’t want to give batsmen another reason to score runs.”
Earlier this month, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)’s protocols for the return to spot post coronavirus pandemic included ruling out the practice of using spit in a bid to reduce transmission.
Meanwhile, Cummins' teammate David Warner had opined on the debate saying that he finds the rule pointless given that the players are already in the risk of sharing the change room.
“You’re sharing change rooms and you’re sharing everything else, I don’t see why you have to change that,” Warner told ‘cricket.com.au’. “It’s been going around for hundreds of years now, I can’t recall anyone that’s got sick by doing that. If you’re going to contract a bug, I don’t think it’d necessarily be just from that.
