COVID-19: David Warner against saliva ban once cricket resumes

Apr 30, 2020

Melbourne [Australia], April 30 : Australian opening batsman David Warner has said the ban on the use of saliva on the cricket ball will be unnecessary once the sporting action begins.
Currently, all sporting action across the world has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although, there has been a huge debate over the usage of saliva to shine the ball once cricket matches start.
Over the past few weeks, various media reports have surfaced which have indicated towards ICC looking to ban the use of saliva as an aftermath of coronavirus.
"You are sharing change rooms and you are sharing everything else, I don't see why you have to change that. It has been going around for hundreds of years now, I can't recall anyone that's got sick by doing that," cricket.com.au quoted Warner as saying.
"If you're going to contract a bug, I don't think it'd necessarily be just from that. I am not too sure but it's not my place to comment on whether or not we should or shouldn't (use saliva to shine the ball). It's up to the ICC and the governing bodies to decide," he added.
Shining the ball is a major thing for bowlers in trying to extract some swing from the match.
As the game starts swaying in favour of batsmen by each passing day, bowlers have to try everything they can in trying to trouble the batsmen.
Earlier this year, even India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was sceptical of using saliva on the ball ahead of the ODI series against South Africa.
"We are taking every precaution we can. We have a team of doctors with us, who are advising us on dos and don'ts. We have a meeting with our doctors. If they advise us to not use saliva on the ball, then we will follow it. So, it all depends upon the instructions given by the doctor," Bhuveshwar Kumar had said during a press conference earlier this year.
Right now, no sport is being played as all top tournaments like IPL, Premier League, LA Liga have been suspended and there is no certain answer as to when all these competitions will resume.
Wimbledon 2020 has been cancelled for the first time since World War II and Tokyo Olympics have been postponed for the first time.
The World Health Organisation had termed coronavirus as a 'pandemic' on March 11.