Cricket Australia would seek permission from the ICC to use match ball disinfectants to understand how they can help minimize the safety risk to players as the game progresses toward a new standard in the amid of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alex Kountouris, Sports Science and Sports Medicine Manager of Cricket Australia, said that they had established a set of general guidelines for players to return to training safely. At the same time, competitive cricket is likely to be played later this year.
With the ICC ‘s Cricket Committee recommending a ban on players using saliva to polish the balls, Kountouris said that tests will shortly begin to see if disinfecting the ball after the game would still be an effective way to reduce risks or not.
We ‘d have to appeal to the ICC to get approval, there’s a lot of things to remember. And whether or not it’s efficient. The ball is made of leather, it’s difficult to clean as it has tiny nooks and crevasses.
“… we don’t know how the ball conflict and we don’t know if it’s safe. Yet it ‘s a thought. At the moment, everything is on the table, and everything is considered.
Kountouris said that as England is supposed to play ahead with Australia, it should consider the effects of the steps taken before they implemented in Australia.
“From an Australian cricket view, other nations expected to play ahead of us,” he said.
“We have an opportunity to collaborate with the ICC and other nations and see what they are coming up with and how it works for them. We are going to take whatever steps we need to take to ensure we reduce the risk.
As of now, Kountouris is teaching Australia ‘s professional cricketers on the latest preparation rules, claiming it’s going to be “a steep learning curve” to leave habits that have grown over the years.
Players would be allowed to use their own ball during practice, to reduce the amount of shared equipment and frequently sanitize the used equipment.
“It’ll be a tough habit to break. Until they catch the ball, some people are supposed to clean their hands, others are used to shine the ball. It will be a steep learning process and ideally, we have to practice that kind of stuff.
“Yep, there are going to be mistaken at some point, and we haven’t figured it out how we’re going to deal with those mistakes and what the result is going to be,” he said.
