Mitchell Starc fears loss of competition between bat & ball without use of saliva

SYDNEY: Banning the usage of saliva to shine the cricket ball might lead to a waning of interest in the sport, Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has said. The 30-year-old stated that the usage of saliva is important in making the contest even considering the nature of wickets in Australia over the past two years. "That contest between bat and ball, we don't want to lose that or get further away from that even contest. So there needs to be something in place to keep that ball swinging," Starc told reporters in a video interview.

"They mentioned the other day that it's only going to be there for a period of time and then once the world gets back to a relatively normal situation then saliva can come back into shining the ball."

Saliva ban was one of many recommendations made by the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Cricket Committee chaired by Anil Kumble for the resumption of cricket amid the coronavirus pandemic. Kumble said later that the measure would only be a temporary one but Starc fears that unless a viable substitute can be found, bowlers will lose the edge.

"We don't want to lose that or make it less even, so there needs to be something in place to keep that ball swinging," he said.

"Otherwise people aren't going to be watching it and kids aren't going to want to be bowlers. In Australia in the last couple of years we've had some pretty flat wickets, and if that ball's going straight it's a pretty boring contest." IANS