'Maybe bowlers should wear a mask'- Misbah-ul-Haq suggests alternatives to prevent bowlers from using saliva

International Cricket Council recently issued “back to cricket” guidelines that should be followed by the players as the gentlemen’s game is moving close towards its resumption. They also mentioned that bowlers will not be allowed to use sweat or saliva. But, Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan coach and selector, feels that it might not be enough to restrict the bowling spearheads and certain other preventive measures should also be taken into account for their security.

COVID-19 has shuffled the globe upside down and more than 3 lakh people have lost their lives due to the same. This is the reason the governments enforced lockdown in the nations due to which the sporting action came down to a standstill. However, now the situation is slowly-slowly improving with time. And, cricket boards have begun mulling the idea of bringing the game back on track.

Misbah-ul-Haq says cricket will not be same once it is back

Meanwhile, ICC laid a guideline for the bowlers that from now onwards they will not use saliva or sweat in the games. It is well known that a fast-bowler uses it to extract some swing or movement from the ball while bowling. Misbah opened up on the same and said that it is not an easy task for a bowler to leave his usual habit of using sweat and saliva. He added the pacers will have this guideline in their mind while bowling. But, they might also act instinctively in the match.

“It is not going to be easy at all (bowling without applying saliva). This is habit players have developed since the start of their cricket. Even if a player keeps in mind the new restrictions somewhere he might act instinctively,” Misbah said on a YouTube Cricket Channel ‘Cricket Baaz’.

So, he suggested that the bowler should be asked to wear a mask or something to protect them from their own action, “We might have to do something to prevent this. Like making bowlers wear a mask or some other restrictive protection so that they don’t use saliva instinctively. It is like when you keep on driving a car your reactions become automated,” he asserted.