Permanent Saliva Ban Not A Big Deal, Says Australia Test Captain Pat Cummins

Australia Test skipper Pat Cummins says since the impact of precautionary prohibition on use of saliva for shining the ball was not as huge as anticipated, a permanent ban on its usage will not be a "big deal" for the seam bowlers. Saliva application was barred by the ICC in view of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodian of cricket laws, recently imposed a complete ban on the use of saliva while announcing its amended 2022 code, which will come into effect in October this year.

The MCC reasoned that applying saliva had no impact on the ball's movement, according to its research.

"I don't think so (permanent saliva ban will hamper the performance of the swing bowlers)," Cummins, himself a pacer, told reporters ahead of Australia's third Test against Pakistan.

"I don't think it has made a huge effect, as big as we might have thought it would. We can still use sweat so it's not too big a deal," he added.

The MCC said that using saliva to shine the ball would be treated as an unfair practice.

Great that KKR have retained most of the squad

Cummins, who had become the most expensive foreign buy in the Indian Premier League (IP) in 2019 when Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for a whopping Rs 15.50 crore, will turn out for the Kolkata-based outfit once again.

"Really excited. It's been great that most of the squad has been able to kept together. So, most of the players and staff know really really well," he said.

KKR have named Indian batter Shreyas Iyer as skipper and having shared the dressing room with him in the 2017 edition of the IPL, Cummins is looked forward to joining forces with him once again.

"Shreyas, I played with at Delhi(Daredevils), we got on really well. He's seem like a