ICC guidelines banning use of saliva will be hard on bowlers, says Wasim Jaffer

Mumbai: Former India opener Wasim Jaffer feels that the ICC guidelines banning the use of saliva to shine the ball to deal with COVID-19 pandemic would make the life of bowlers difficult.

The ICC Cricket Committee, led by former India captain Anil Kumble, last month recommended a ban on using saliva on the ball as an interim measure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The ICC has come up with a solution of not using the saliva, or things like that. For bowlers, it is going to be hard to not use saliva, and not shine the ball. Then I think, it is going to be lot easier for batsmen,” Jaffer said during an Insta Chat with his employers ‘Indian Oil’.

“Again, ICC will have to make sure that the balance remains pretty equal for batsmen and bowlers and you don’t want to make it one-sided for any one of them,” added the veteran Mumbaikar, who has numerous first-class records to his name.

The 42-year-old Jaffer suggested the use of two new balls in Test matches and that the ICC curators would have to prepare pitches that do not overtly favour either the batsmen or the bowlers.

“I suggested that in a Test match you could use two new balls, that is one thing that can happen. Probably the curators can make a wicket which is even for both batsmen and bowlers, not too batting or bowling friendly,” added Jaffer, who announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket in March.

He also felt that it will be hard for the players to always keep the new rules in mind, especially in an intense game.

“While this pandemic is around, it is never going to be easy to predict what is going to happen (regarding the game),” he said.

Giving an example of two batsmen chatting in between overs, Jaffer said they will find it difficult to follow the new rules.

“It will be interesting. Cricket is not a very physical sport, but still, in the dressing room, you sit very close, while you are going to field you make a huddle and the captain talks, gives you a motivating talk, it’s very hard to maintain that distance.

“At the end of an over, batsmen come close and chat together, it is hard to follow those things and remember all those things in an intense game,” he said.

On the personal front, he recalled that the triple hundred he scored against Saurashtra in his second Ranji Trophy game, which cemented his place in the Mumbai side. 

Later in his career, Jaffer led Mumbai to two Ranji Trophy titles.