Could dipping cricket ball in disinfectant solve spit dilemma?

Cricket Australia’s medical team are experimenting with disinfectant to counteract the game’s saliva ban.

A move to ban the use of saliva to shine a cricket ball may force bowlers to relearn or reinvent one of the sport’s most prized but troublesome skills

But wait, there’s more.

The ICC cricket committee has recommended spit be banned on the ball and now Cricket Australia’s medical team has revealed they are experimenting with dipping it in disinfectant.

Sports Science and Sports Medicine manager Alex Kountouris has been part of a team managing the local game’s response in the time of the virus and one of the areas they have explored is keeping the ball — the one item most likely to spread disease in a match — virus free.

“Disinfecting the ball is a consideration,” Kontouris said. “We don’t know the impact on the ball. We haven’t tested it yet. We’ll obviously have to test it, get permission from the ICC, there’s a lot of things and to see whether it’s effective or not. So there’s a bunch of factors.

“The ball being leather it’s is harder to disinfect because it’s got little nooks and crevices so we don’t know how effective it’s going to be, we don’t know how infected the ball is going to get and we don’t know if it’s going to be allowed. It is an absolute consideration.

“Everything is on the table and everything is being considered.

“From an Australian cricket perspective, probably other countries are going to play before us so we’ve got a chance to work with the ICC and the other countries to see what they come up with and take whatever steps we need to for making sure there’s a lower risk.”

In an era where presidents speculate about injecting disinfectant, washing a cricket ball in it is not the strangest suggestion abroad and rugby league attendants were dipping balls in something similar when that code continued during the earlier days of the pandemic.

Former South African captain Faf du Plessis uses saliva to shine the ball

There is no talk yet about slips being socially distant or short legs yet but anything is possible.

Bowlers were alarmed to see the recommendation on Tuesday that the use of saliva be banned, saying it further advantaged batsmen who now have access to bigger bats and smaller boundaries.

In Australia the problem is accentuated by relatively benign pitches and a Kookaburra ball that doesn’t swing or seam as much as the English Dukes balls.

There are moves for bowlers to have their own balls at training and a ban on sharing any equipment.

Kountouris admits, however, that old behaviours may be hard to change. Fielders and bowlers often lick their fingers or spit on their palms when handling the ball or preparing to receive it.

“It’s going to be a tough habit to break,” he said. “Some people are used to licking their fingers before they grab the ball. People are used to shining the ball with their fingers.

“There’s going to be a steep learning curve and hopefully we’ve got time to practice some of that stuff but yeah there are going to be mistakes at some point.

“I don’t think we’ve worked out how we are going to deal with those mistakes, what the outcome will be. I imagine we are going to take a commonsense approach and understand that people make mistakes and things are not going to be perfect. But if we can do most things right, most of the time, we are going to OK.”

Kountouris believes cricket is on track to resume later in the year but warned that nothing was guaranteed.

A Manly official disinfects a ball after going into the crowd during an NRL game in March. Picture: Brett Costello

“We’re at the moment really happy with the fact that we can get back to training,” he said. “So, a month or so ago, things looked bleak. The country has done really well. We’ve all sort of banded together and got to this position where we are starting to get out and about, to be able to start getting back to training.

“From a sport perspective, there’s obviously a long way to go. If things don’t go wrong here, of course we are on track to gradually move through each of the different stages. It’s dependent on whether we are allowed to travel, domestically, and whether borders are open between countries and we don’t have an outbreak and a cluster.

“There’s a whole bunch of factors but certainly if everything goes well, we are on track and we’re quietly confident that things will go to plan and we’ll be ready at the start of the season.“

While it is unlikely there will be crowds at games any time soon, the prospect of them passing on the virus should the ball go over the fence is another consideration.

“We don’t know what risk the ball is, I’d imagine it will be a low risk,” Kountouris said. “That’s something we’ll have to consider when that comes around.

“Unfortunately, the impact of crowds right now is lower on our considerations.

“We’re just trying to get players back to training in their environment then the next part will be getting the games started. We’ll consider that in due course but haven’t thought about that closely. There’s a whole bunch of factors around that, including the crowd.”