Mumbai: Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has lifted the ban on the use of saliva to shine the cricket ball. The IPL officials met with captains of various teams at the BCCI office in Mumbai on Thursday, and unanimously, the captains voted to have this change in the run-up to the season’s start.
The Covid-19 safety protocol initially enforced the saliva ban in 2020. Although the International Cricket Council (ICC) imposed a permanent ban on this in 2022 due to health and safety issues, the playing conditions of the IPL are not through the ICC, and the BCCI can decide on its own.
This means that IPL 2025 will be the first major cricket series to allow the use of saliva again since the pandemic hit. Tools like saliva used on one side of the ball were a classic application, helping bowlers bring some swing or movement in the air, something Indian speedster Mohammed Shami is a proponent of.
Apart from lifting the saliva ban, the BCCI has also announced another major rule change for the season. To mitigate the effect of dew in night fixtures, a second ball will be used after the 11th over of the second innings. One of the latest rules prevents the captain winning the toss from having a dew advantage.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will open their IPL 2025 campaign on March 22 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
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