The world cricket governing body ICC imposed a ban on shining the ball through saliva in test matches due to the risk of spreading coronavirus.
The chief executive committee came up with this no saliva policy with the aim to lower the risk of virus spread and to protect players, staff, and on-ground umpires from COVID-19 when cricket is about to return. ICC endorsed the recommendation made by the committee.
JUST IN: Interim changes to the ICC's playing regulations have been confirmed.
— ICC (@ICC) June 9, 2020
Full details? https://t.co/GfQ8l6Qyra pic.twitter.com/4cT2YpOaEO
It’s a new policy by ICC and players will have to abide by it. In the start, if players apply saliva in order to get extra swing from the ball the officials will be lenient towards players so that players can adjust with the policy.
After seeing an increase in saliva use match officials will warn the team and if bowlers still continue to use saliva then as a result 5 runs will be given to the opponent side. Furthermore, whenever a player uses saliva, it will be umpire’s duty to clean the ball before resuming the match.
However, bowlers can use their sweat to polish the ball. Players can also be substituted by anyone showing some symptoms. As of now, these rules are for test formats and not applicable to T20 or ODI format.
The ICC made another big decision regarding the DRS review as they have increased the number of DRS in a series. Because ICC is using home match umpires as they have restricted the traveling of international umpires due to the Covid-19 crisis. So if a series is playing in Australia then only Australian umpires can do the duty. So that’s why ICC added another DRS review because there may be a lack of experience in umpires so to avoid any error extra review will help to cover it.
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