Representative image of cricket bat and ball.
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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday lifted the ban on use of saliva on the ball in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) after majority of captains agreed to its proposal.
The decision was taken at the captains' meeting in Mumbai.
"The saliva ban has been lifted. Majority of captains were in favour of the move," a top BCCI official told PTI.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had banned the age-old practice of applying saliva to shine the ball as a precautionary measure during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, the world body made the ban permanent.
The IPL too included the ICC ban in its playing conditions in the aftermath of the pandemic but its guidelines are outside the purview of the sport's governing body.
With the development on Thursday, the IPL becomes the first major cricketing event to re-introduce saliva's use after the Covid-19 pandemic.