• Home
  • Match Hub
  • Watch Glenn Phillips Caught Applying Saliva On The Ball In Bangladesh New Zealand Test Match

[Watch] Glenn Phillips Caught Applying Saliva On The Ball In BAN-NZ Test Match

image-lpl0f174Glenn Phillips bowling against Bangladesh (X.com)

Glenn Phillips has grown by leaps and bounds as an international cricketer in the last couple of years, and has made himself a regular across formats for the Kiwis. He made an impact both with the bat and ball in the first innings of the opening Test match between Bangladesh and New Zealand as well, picking up four wickets and scoring important 42 with the bat.

However, in Bangladesh's second innings, on day 3, a controversy has popped up as Glenn Phillips was caught applying saliva on the ball, something which is against the rule of the game. It happened in the 34th over but at that time, the on-field umpires did not take any action against the off-spinner. The saliva rule first came into effect in 2020 when the entire world was engulfed by dangerous Covid-19.



The rules of the game where again updated in 2022 and came into effect on October 1, 2022 with Law 41.3 stating that -

"When cricket resumed following the onset of Covid-19, playing conditions were written in most forms of the game stating that applying saliva to the ball was no longer permitted. MCC's research found that this had little or no impact on the amount of swing the bowlers were getting. Players were using sweat to polish the ball, and this was equally effective.


"The new Laws will not permit the use of saliva on the ball, which also removes any grey areas of fielders eating sugary sweets to alter their saliva to apply to the ball. Using saliva will be treated the same way as any other unfair methods of changing the condition of the ball."

So, what Glenn Phillips did was techincally illegal and we might see some action against Phillips from match officials after the Day 3 or when the Test match gets over. Alishan Sharafu was the last one who was penalised for using saliva on the ball in the Nepal-UAE ODI game in 2022. Nepal were awarded five penalty runs in that case, but Phillips might get a harsher punishment has he was seen commiting the illegal act couple of times.