Aussies may disinfect cricket balls
● Ban on using saliva to shine ball plus extra hygiene rules as training returns
Disinfecting the ball during practice and matches is being considered as elite cricket players in Australia prepare to return to training during the coronavirus pandemic.
The International Cricket Council has already indicated the use of saliva to shine the ball, which helps bowlers swing it through the air, will be banned when the sport resumes.
Players using sweat to polish the ball will be OK under cricket’s revised guidelines, but may contravene government rules in some places.
“Disinfecting the ball is a consideration,” Alex Kountouris, Cricket Australia’s head of sports science, said yesterday. “We don’t know the impact on the ball (yet) because we haven’t tested it.
“We’d have to speak to the ICC and get permission, there’s a lot of things (to consider). And whether it’s effective or not.
“The ball being leather, it’s harder to disinfect because it’s got little nooks and crevices... but it’s absolutely a consideration.”
Kountouris said some people, particularly bowlers, would find it hard to get used to the new rules, which are aimed at increasing the health and safety of players.
“Some people are used to licking their fingers before they grab the ball, people are used to shining the ball,” he said. “It’s going to be a steep learning curve... we’ve got a bit of work to do.”
Kountouris said other guidelines in place as elite players start returning to practice in Australia this week specified no sharing of equipment and promoted extra cleaning of facilities.
Cricket was suspended as countries went into lockdown. Travel bans and other restrictions are being gradually eased in Australia, and local administrators are hopeful that matches can be played in the last few months of 2020.
In Scotland, no league cricket or national cups will take place this summer. Scheduled One Day Internationals against Australia and New Zealand at the Grange in Edinburgh have also been called off.
The England Wales Cricket
Board, however, announced that up to 18 bowlers will take part in individualised training sessions across seven county grounds from today.
Edgbaston, Emirates Old Trafford, Emirates Riverside, Kia Oval, Trent Bridge, Taunton and Hove are the venues, with each hosting at least one session this week before a full roll out from Monday.
The bowlers, whose identities have not yet been confirmed, will have their temperatures checked but no testing is planned in stage one of the return to training.
One of the key principles is maintaining a minimum of two metres physical and social distancing but as training advances to smaller groups, there will be more stringent testing.
For the rest of this week, a physiotherapist will be at each venue to oversee each session, observing social distancing measures, before ECB and selected county coaches return to individual training from next week onwards.
Bowlers must bring their own kit, including assigned cricket balls, wash their hands regularly, clean equipment used with disinfectant wipes and arrive at training ready to start practice.
If they bowl in an empty net, they must collect their own ball and bowling into a mitt has been deemed a permissible form of individualised training but coaches must bring their own mitt and wear a disposable glove on the other hand. In line with the ICC ban the use of saliva to polish the ball will not be allowed. The ECB has also ruled out the use of sweat.
Ashley Giles, director of men’s cricket at the ECB, last week insisting that the sessions should be less risky than a trip to the supermarket.
The measures mark the first step towards hosting international matches this summer although a number of other factors need to be achieved before that becomes a reality.