Cricket ball manufacturers unfazed by saliva ban being made permanent

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) on Tuesday, the permanent ban on saliva use on the cricket ball and the "Mankading" method of dismissal no longer being considered unfair play were two of the more talked about changes. Players have always used the traditional method of shining one side of the ball with saliva and sweat to help generate more movement in the air as it travels towards batsmen.

This changed post Covid and the no-saliva rule was implemented when cricket resumed after a COVID-19 suspension in July 2020. Now, when the new rules come into effect from October 1 this year, using saliva on the ball will be tantamount to ball tampering. Though the change in laws were received with mixed reactions, cricket ball manufacturers appear to be unfazed with the development.

TimesofIndia.com caught up with Dilip Jajodia, managing director of British Cricket Balls Ltd., which produces the Dukes balls used in England and the West Indies and Paras Anand, Director of Sanspareils Greenlands (SG), the firm which produces the cricket balls used in India. "I had said earlier that the ban on use of saliva on the cricket ball is not a big deal even though the bowlers were saying that they can't swing the ball without saliva. Anyways, on the basis of a health hazard, people accepted it. Now they're saying because that (saliva ban) didn't cause too many problems, we should just allow sweat and not saliva. And the reason saliva is banned now, is because people suck sweets and the sugar with the saliva causes a sort of a cellulose substance which obviously soaks into the pores of the leather (of the ball) when you apply friction it can assist with the shine. So there is a possibility of taking unfair advantage because you can't stop