Saliva ban won’t mean much in India: Mitchell Starc

CHENNAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned the use of saliva to shine the ball in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the jury is still out on whether it will give undue advantage to the batsmen when cricket resumes.

Australia pacer Mitchell Starc feels that the new regulations will alter the balance between bat and ball even though he believes that the change won’t affect bowlers much in Indian conditions.

“In Indian conditions, the ban might not have so much of an affect. You sweat a lot in the hot and humid conditions and you can use it to polish the SG ball well. Another aspect is the pitches and conditions don’t offer much in terms of swing movement unlike those in England and Australia,” Starc told reporters during an online press conference on Tuesday morning.

Under the altered conditions, the left-arm seamer asserted that curators must be instructed to leave extra grass on wickets or artificial substance must be allowed to shine the ball to give pacers more say in the games.

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“You use both saliva and sweat to shine the ball. I’ve probably been a bit more on the sweat side, and I try not to get my hands in my mouth too much but I agree that there needs to be something in place to keep that ball swinging.

"They’ve mentioned that it's only going to be an interim measure. So for the time being, they should instruct people to leave more grass on the wickets to have an even contest between bat and ball. Otherwise people are going to stop watching, and kids aren't going to want to be bowlers. There are some pretty flat wickets, and if that ball doesn’t do much and goes straight then it becomes a pretty boring contest,” Starc said.

The 30-year-old also revealed that Kookaburra is developing a wax that could be used to shine the ball instead of saliva.

“I understand that they are opposed to using a foreign substance, but we have to check whether it can be controlled by the umpires in terms of they have a portion of the wax and you can only use a small amount,” he said.

Starc, who hasn’t picked up a cricket bat or ball in the last eight weeks, will resume practice in Sydney on Wednesday. With talks of the T20 World Cup getting postponed, the Australia international cricket season might only get underway with the India series.

Starc said he is open to the idea of playing a day-night Test against India even though the visitors had refused to play a pink-ball Test on their last tour to Australia in 2018-19.

“The fans love it, it creates a different aspect to the contest, bat and ball are closer together in that contest. India played a pink-ball game in India so they’re not completely foreign to it. A pink-ball Test will be a great thing,” Starc said.

Even though Starc withdrew from the IPL earlier this season, he said that might reconsider his decision if the IPL is held in the October-November window instead of the T20 WC.

“I’d consider it. Obviously it’d be right at the start of our domestic season as well so it’d be a fair bit to consider. But I don’t currently have a contract, so I currently don’t have to worry.”