South Africa batsman Faf du Plessis and former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee believe it will be difficult for the International Cricket Council to implement its rule of not allowing the use of saliva to shine the ball.

Earlier this week, the ICC had recommended the ban of saliva to take the polish off the ball when the game resumes after the ongoing coronavirus-forced hiatus.

“We are living through extraordinary times and the recommendations are interim measures to enable us to safely resume cricket in a way that preserves the essence of our game whilst protecting everyone involved,” Anil Kumble, chief of ICC’s Cricket Committee, had said.

Also read – Appointing medical officers, 14-day isolation training camps: ICC guidelines for cricket to restart

Du Plessis and Lee, however, reckon that such a rule will be hard to follow for players.

“When you have done something your whole life from eight, nine, 10 years of age, where you lick your fingers and you put on the ball, it’s very hard to change that overnight,” said Lee on Star Sports’ Cricket Connected show.

“So, I think there’s going to be a couple of occasions, or there’s going to be some leniency I think from the ICC, where there may be warnings. It’s a great initiative, it’s going to be very hard to implement I think, because cricketers have done this for their whole life.”

Du Plessis said that the rule will also be difficult to follow for the fielders.

“I’m used to taking a bit of spit on my fingers before I catch the ball at slip. If you look at someone like Ricky Ponting, he has a big spit on his hands every time he tried to catch a ball,” he said.