Spin great and ICC Cricket Committee chairman Anil Kumble on Wednesday reiterated the panel’s reluctance to allow use of artificial substances on the ball despite the saliva ban, saying the balance between bat and ball can be maintained by “playing around” with the pitches.
“So in cricket you have the surface that you can play around with and bring about a balance between the bat and ball,” said Kumble at a FICCI webinar.
The bowlers will miss using saliva the most in Test cricket as it aids them in generating both conventional and reverse swing.
“...You can still probably leave grass on the surface or even have two spinners, let’s get spinners back in the game in a Test, because one day game or a T20 you are not really worried about shining the ball. It’s Test match that we are talking about,” said the former India captain.
“And in a Test match why not get two spinners to play in Australia, two in England, which doesn’t happen often.”
Like he had said right after recommending saliva ban as an interim measure, Kumble reiterated that allowing use of artificial substances would have taken the creativity out of the game.
“We’ve been very strict about substances that have been used on the ball. That was something that we felt, the creativity was something that we should not (tinker with),” he said.
Kumble, however, admitted that it would be hard for players to adjust to not using saliva.
“Although it is second nature in cricket, and that’s something that players will find it hard to manage. And that’s why I believe that at training, they’d like to start slowly because it’s not just about coming back and playing cricket in a match,” he said.
“It’s also about coming back from two and a half months of being locked up... And especially if you’re a bowler, you need to have those bowling overs under your belt before you start competing.
“So, it’s important that you slowly and gradually come back into sort of normalcy that you can and the advantage that cricket has over other sports is that there’s an element of adjustable variance in the pitch, which not many sport have,” he added.
Kumble said the committee’s recommendations focused on resumption of cricket at the earliest. “... I know there’s been a lot of debate about shining the ball but the idea was to kickstart cricket, play the sport, and then I’m sure things will fall in place. Yes, there will be some challenges. You have to go one game at a time.
