BACK TO PITCH
New guidelines detail post-COVID protocols
CRICKET: The Toowoomba Cricket Association believes a return to the playing field won’t be difficult to navigate.
The release of the ICC guidelines for resumption of cricket have advised on a number of advised protocols to get back on to the field.
TCI president Angus Rathie said he believed the sport was in a strong position to work through the new conditions.
“There’s no big challenges as such. There’s an overlay with federal, state and local government guidelines,” Rathie said.
“Cricket is lucky in that we’re an open-aired sport and don't have the challenges of some other sports.
“The competition committee is currently reviewing and asking for feedback.
“The clubs and board members will look at reviewing what changes we need to make, look at ICC recommendations and what other sports are doing.”
One of the main proposals in the ICC guidelines comes in the form of shining the ball.
Bowlers traditionally use saliva as a way of generating more swing, however this has been advised against, with the ball naturally coming into contact with everyone.
Rathie said that while it would be a challenge for bowlers to adjust to, he didn’t be
lieve it would turn the tables for batsmen.
“Saliva is not the only thing you use (to swing a ball). Rubbing one part of the ball on pants or a shirt is one way of polishing it,” he said.
“It’s about trying to take the ball away from the face area. Not being able to use saliva isn’t that much of an issue.
“It’s like the 1.5m rule that we’ve had to follow for social distancing, it’s just about breaking the habit.
“At a community level we try to provide a pitch with as much balance as possible. We want to provide a fair contest between the bowler and batsmen where the skills of the players dictate the outcome.”
Queensland Country captain and spin bowler Cameron Brimblecombe said the balance would fall in the favour of batsmen.
“It will have an impact. Right now the international perspective between bat and ball could be skewed towards the bat,” he said.
“They’ve talked about being able to manipulate the ball with a gel or wax.
“The changes could work if they prepare pitches with extra
WE WANT TO PROVIDE A FAIR CONTEST BETWEEN THE BOWLER AND BATSMEN WHERE THE SKILLS OF THE PLAYERS DICTATE THE OUTCOME
ANGUS RATHIE
grass or a bit more moisture to benefit the bowlers.
“It could allow more movement off the deck that would be lost in the air.”
Other changes could take the form of training setups and scheduling of fixtures.
“There may need to be an adjustment with the draws of the DDBBL with staggering games at the same venue,” Rathie said.
“A number of umpires have already started wearing gloves as part of sun safe policy, which isn’t a big issue.
“A lot of the guidelines of not sharing equipment might need to result in some changes.
“We will have to look at how training in the nets will take place, whether that is restricting numbers or instead of all grades training on the one day, staggering it out across different days.”