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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has relaxed the restriction on using saliva to shine the ball for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, which begins on Saturday. The decision was made during a meeting of captains and management at the board’s headquarters in Mumbai, after the majority of captains endorsed the plan.
In May 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) prohibited players from using saliva to polish the ball as a temporary remedy during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the International Criminal Court (ICC) permanently banned it in September 2022.
According to Cricbuzz, eliminating the saliva restriction is one of the BCCI and IPL management’s crucial initiatives for the forthcoming season.
The decision to lift the ban on the use of saliva came after India pacer Mohammed Shami had urged the authorities to revoke the saliva ban on the ball in international cricket to assist bowlers in getting reverse swing from the ball.
“We are trying to reverse but you are not getting the use of saliva into the game. We are constantly appealing to allow the use of saliva, and it will be interesting with the reverse swing,” Shami had said after a Champions Trophy game in Dubai recently.
Another key decision taken by the BCCI for the IPL 2025 is that the second ball would be introduced after the 11th over of the second innings in an IPL match to counteract the influence of dew, which frequently affects night-time matches, according to the article.
It also stated that the BCCI had left the decision to the umpires’ discretion. “It is up to the umpires to decide if the ball should be changed. “They will decide based on the presence of dew,” a source told Cricbuzz.
As a result, this rule will mostly apply to night games, with a second ball unlikely to be utilized in afternoon matches, as per the report.
Source: IANS
