Tendulkar Casts Doubts Over Saliva Ban, Asks What Happens in Cold Conditions Where Players Don’t Sweat

The ICC has asked bowlers to use sweat instead of saliva to shine the ball but Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar has asked what are they supposed to do in cooler confines of England and New Zealand where working up a sweat won’t be that easy.

In a chat with former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee for social media platform ‘100 MB’, Tendulkar spoke about the challenges for fast bowlers in adjusting to new playing conditions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So what happens to places like New Zealand or even England, when those typical cold English weather, so what does one do, when you are not going to sweat?” Tendulkar questioned.

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“First thing is you put on a thermal or a long T-shirt. I remember when I was playing for Yorkshire, in 1992 and it was beginning of May and it was freezing. I had five layers on me. What happens now in these conditions, how do you shine the ball, when there is no sweat?” the legend said.

Saliva is primarily used on a new ball while sweat is used on the old ball when reverse swing comes into play.

“Whatever period we have played, we have used saliva when the ball was new, and when the ball starts reversing, from saliva you move to sweat to make one side heavier. And that imbalance in weight will help the ball go in that direction.

“I found there were two ways to get the ball to reverse, one was to have imbalance in weight and the other one was to keep it smoother, so there is less friction and it travels faster, when scuffed up,” Tendulkar explained.

The former India captain said in such a situation, the fielding side is left with just the sweat option, which is much lighter.

“So you are basically left with one option, isn’t it, because the other option of shining and saliva and not focusing much on getting that side heavy, that option is more or less ruled out, it’s only the sweat one would have to work on,” the 47-year-old, who played 200 Tests, said.

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Tendulkar also wondered as to how sweat is not considered unhygienic compared to saliva.

It must be mentioned that ICC allowed use of sweat as a research concluded that it’s not a transmitter of the deadly virus.

“Now it is considered that putting saliva is unhygienic, is putting sweat on the ball hygienic?,” he asked.

“With this mindset that we have now of social distancing, is putting sweat on the ball hygienic. I would think twice, now it is somewhere registered that you know it can’t be hygienic.”

“So when you apply sweat on the ball, it really cleans the dirt on the ball. When you apply saliva it is kind of concentrated and you can actually work better on the ball,” the world’s highest run-getter said.

Tendulkar, during his playing days, was one of the designated ball shiners of the team.

“Over a period of time, I realised that I used to maintain the ball for the team, and there were a number of guys who were designated, we would take it in turns.

“Each session there were two three guys who looked after the ball and then someone else would take care of it in the next session,” he remembered.