Permanent ban imposed on using saliva as ICC announces changes to playing conditions

The former Indian captain and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly led the Men's Cricket Committee and recommended the discussions over MCC's updated 3rd edition of the 2017 code of the laws of cricket, after which ICC announced several changes to its playing conditions.

The following Changes to the playing conditions will come into effect on 1 October 2022 :

* A new batter will come at the striker's end after a caught dismissal of the previous batter regardless of batters crossing the pitch or not before the catch being taken

* The ban which was imposed as a covid precautionary measure on using saliva to shine the ball has been made permanent

* After a batter's dismissal, the incoming batter will be given a maximum time of 2 minutes to get ready to take strike in Tests and ODIs, the limit of 90 seconds in T2OIs remains unchanged

* The bat or batter has to be inside the pitch while playing the ball. If the batter is being forced to play the ball outside the pitch then it will be an Umpire's call to declare it as a dead ball. If a ball forces the batter to come outside the pitch then it will be declared as no ball

* Any unusual or unfair action while the bowler running to bowl will be penalized with five runs award to the batting side, in addition, to a call of a dead ball

* Running out the non-striker batter before the bowl being bowled will be regarded as run-out as a replacement for the 'unfair play' section

* A bowler trying to run the advancing batter out before coming to bowling stride will be given as a dead ball

"It was an honour chairing my first meeting of the ICC Cricket Committee. I was pleased with the productive contribution of the Committee members which resulted in key recommendations being made. I thank all members for their valuable input and suggestions", said Sourav Ganguly after the meeting.

The ICC Cricket Committee: Sourav Ganguly (Chair); Ramiz Raja (Observer); Mahela Jayawardena and Roger Harper (Past Players); Daniel Vettori and VVS Laxman (Representatives of Current Players); Gary Stead (Member Team Coach Representative); Jay Shah (Full Members’ Representative); Joel Wilson (Umpires’ Representative); Ranjan Madugalle (ICC Chief Referee); Jamie Cox (MCC Representative); Kyle Coetzer (Associate Representative); Shaun Pollock (Media Representative); Greg Barclay and Geoff Allardice (Ex Officio - ICC Chair and Chief Executive); Clive Hitchcock (Committee Secretary); David Kendix (Statistician).