With saliva now banned in cricket, Monty Panesar backs wax to shine ball

By Vishesh Roy
New Delhi [India], June 17 (ANI): Former England spinner Monty Panesar has backed the idea of using wax to shine the cricket ball as players have been banned from using saliva.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has already announced a temporary ban on applying saliva to the ball as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus.
In an interaction with ANI, Panesar said that the ICC should really think about bringing in an alternative to protect the game from becoming batsmen dominant.
"You can have wax which can be used throughout the Test match, you could apply it on the ball to shine the ball, this will be a good option. Look, at the end of the day you cannot make the game too batsmen friendly because then it will be difficult for the bowlers to take wickets," Panesar told ANI.
"The wax can be tried perhaps in training first, but we need some sort of substance on the ball because if there is no substance and saliva is banned, the game might become batsmen dominant," he added.
When Panesar was asked whether the saliva ban will impact spinners or not, he replied: "Yeah, I agree that saliva ban is only going to impact the fast bowlers, spinners tend to spin the bowl, maybe they drift it a little bit and that's about it".
Earlier, former Australian pacer Brett Lee had also thrown his weight behind applying wax to shine the cricket ball.
In an interaction with Sachin Tendulkar on Master Blaster's app '100 MB', Lee had said that a substance can be used which is okay for both batsmen and bowlers.
During the chat, Tendulkar had also suggested taking a new ball after every 50 overs in an innings of a Test match to give bowlers something to play with.
Earlier, the ICC had said that players will not be permitted to use saliva to shine the ball.
If a player does apply saliva to the ball, the umpires will manage the situation with some leniency during an initial period of adjustment for the players, but subsequent instances will result in the team receiving a warning.
A team can be issued up to two warnings per innings but repeated use of saliva on the ball will result in a 5-run penalty to the batting side.
Whenever saliva is applied to the ball, the umpires will be instructed to clean the ball before play recommences.
All international cricket has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the action is set to resume in July as England and West Indies will take on each other in the three-match Test series.
The first Test of the series will be played from July 8. (ANI)