Australia opening batsman David Warner has spoken out against the proposed idea to ban the use of saliva to shine cricket balls.

It is believed that the ICC is busy with negotiations to legalise certain uses of ball tampering once cricket returns to normal.

Speaking to Australian website Cricket.com.au, Warner was hesitant to give his full opinion on the use of saliva but admitted that it won’t make that big a difference.

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‘You’re sharing change rooms and you’re sharing everything else, I don’t see why you have to change that,’ Warner said.

‘It’s been going around for hundreds of years now, I can’t recall anyone that’s got sick by doing that. If you’re going to contract a bug, I don’t think it’d necessarily be just from that.’

The indication, however, is that the ICC wants to remove the health risk that comes with the use of saliva, given the current threat of the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘It’s up to the ICC and the governing bodies to decide,’ added Warner.

Warner was at the centre of Australia’s infamous ball-tampering scandal at Newlands back in 2018, where Cameron Bancroft, under the instruction of Warner, was caught using a piece of sandpaper to shine the ball in order to gain some reverse swing for his bowlers under gloomy Cape Town conditions.

Former Proteas Test skipper Faf du Plessis was also fined 100% of his match fee in 2016 when he used mint saliva to shine the ball during the second Test match against Australia in Hobart.

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