• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

"Sledging" and Youth Cricket

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Hot Topic in East Devon at the moment. Not going to give you any of the background to the motivation for posting the thread: just want to know what you think is acceptable banter out in the middle, and what crosses the line, for various ages. Will be interested to see how our kids' opinions compare with others...
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Hahahahahahaha, were you at the game earlier today?

Young Hensor, so to speak, *got right stuck in*.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
I think it's ok after the age of 13-15. After about 13-14, I don't see a problem with having all out sledging.
 

Turbinator

Cricketer Of The Year
Sledge as much as you want! Whether I am playing street cricket, for my school team, or for my club, I sledge a lot, and I mean a lot... I get right into people's faces.

EDIT: And I don't give a damn when people sledge me, they can sledge me as much as they want, I never really get worked up about it.
 
Last edited:

FRAZ

International Captain
I was playing tape ball game with a few friends of mine .I came late and I was punished to play for the others . Those guys never gave me any over otherwise I am a ripper . I got Peessed and in the next match I snatched the ball from my original teams captain and I said I am playing with you guys now . And when the match started there were some fresh graduates of minor class were batting ,I started beemers and hit the stumps on a few occasions . I bullied the umpire upon giving one odd no ball and I shouted a lot upon a "not" run-out and called the guy a lier .
I was approached by my captain and he said the mosque is right on your back and remember God and please calm down . I just shouted once after bowling a guy out and said to the other captain that HUH HUH HUH it was you who was not giving me the over ,hence I have confirmed that they will always give me the ball to bowl.
 

Turbinator

Cricketer Of The Year
I was playing tape ball game with a few friends of mine .I came late and I was punished to play for the others . Those guys never gave me any over otherwise I am a ripper . I got Peessed and in the next match I snatched the ball from my original teams captain and I said I am playing with you guys now . And when the match started there were some fresh graduates of minor class were batting ,I started beemers and hit the stumps on a few occasions . I bullied the umpire upon giving one odd no ball and I shouted a lot upon a "not" run-out and called the guy a lier .
I was approached by my captain and he said the mosque is right on your back and remember God and please calm down . I just shouted once after bowling a guy out and said to the other captain that HUH HUH HUH it was you who was not giving me the over ,hence I have confirmed that they will always give me the ball to bowl.
:laugh: :lol: :laugh: :lol: :laugh:

Classic Fraz mode... :cool: .
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
I once sledged a 13-year-old when I was about 22. He had long, curlyish hair, and it stuck out the sides of his hat like two hair-buns. Needless to say, this led to me calling him "Princess Leia".

He had the last laugh though - he's gone on to represent Otago..
 

adharcric

International Coach
Sure. Let them show some passion and intensity as long as it doesn't get too offensive. One reason I love to field at point is so I can sledge the hell out of the batsman. :cool:

Another reason: so I can do "stuff" to the ball. :ph34r:
 
Last edited:

James

Cricket Web Owner
I once sledged a 13-year-old when I was about 22. He had long, curlyish hair, and it stuck out the sides of his hat like two hair-buns. Needless to say, this led to me calling him "Princess Leia".

He had the last laugh though - he's gone on to represent Otago..
Haha :laugh: Who was that then?
 

LA ICE-E

State Captain
Sledging is the same thing as trash talking right? Then it's fine cause it happens in basically every sport kids like 10 years old talk trash playing football and ****... i personally get worked up by that **** more and always have a come back...if i don't then i mess up the next play cause i'd be thinking about it and just wanting to knock the bitch out...and then coach benches me...

But one thing that's not ok in any sport is racial slurs...then you those big rumbles.
 

shortpitched713

International Captain
All that I ****ed your mum stuff is as likely to affect a grown adult as a 13 year old so I would say that if its tolerated at the higher levels, then it should also be tolerated at the lower ones. Cursing for under-12s should probably not be allowed though, although that would probably allow them to be a bit more creative as well.
 

Simon

Request Your Custom Title Now!
sledging is such a huge part of cricket at higher levels i dont have a problem with kids of any age getting involved as long as it isnt racist or anything like that...
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
I'm sort of instinctively against it, because it is a type of bullying after a fashion & bullying is always a hot topic where kids are concerned. It's likely to suck the fun out of playing for someone who cops a bit of abuse of a regular basis, as a minor is less likely to have sufficient perspective to know that the sledger is just trying to affect his (or her) game & isn't actually having a go per se.

Against that I'd have to say I'm not naive enough to think it doesn't go on & also it seems slightly arse-about-face that we should demand a higher standard of behaviour from fom children than we do from adults.
 
Last edited:

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
A couple of years ago, I was visiting Delhi and my former club asked me to come for a game against one of the local teams which was comprising entirely of teenagers.

When I went in to bat and took guard to face the first delivery, I had to stop and step back. The chatter from the slips and keepers was incessant. It wasnt rude but it was ridiculously ongoing. They just wouldnt stop the chatter even as the bowler started his run up.

It was a very annoying. Playing after many many years, I was completely taken by surprise and wasnt used to anything like that.

As I stopped and stepped back, they all looked surprised and really did not know what had happened. That I was disturbed by their chatter did not seem to occur to them at all ! But since they stopped I thought they had understood and got on my guard to face up and it started again and I stepped away again.

It was amazing how they did not seem to realize that it was disturbing the batsman. I presume that it has become common practice and batsmen have stopped complaining !

Then again, I found that even if a bowler bowled a rank long hop, and it somehow escaped punishment or was hammered away but stopped by a fielder, the wicket keeper applauded and said 'shabash' or well bowled with exactly the same intensity and sincerity (for want of a better word as he did when he beat the batsman with a beauty.

This, of course, is not relevant to the discussion on sledging but surely tels us what the kids are picking up from the seniors out there.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Not until about 15 or so. Before that, the sledges tend to be crude rather than cutting anyway, and just insults rather than about cricket ability. It should be drummed into kids throughout juniors that the reason for talk is more about positive reinforcement towards teammates.

Sledging should be subtle, so that really no-one else on the ground knows that you are partaking in it. Kids don't have that ability.
 

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Shouldn't be any of it, imo. I'm Pres of a local cricket club and it's a blight on the game and should be punished in junior ranks. Our associaiton has brought in a rule in juniors and seniors of zero tolerance for bad behaviour including sledging (it is policed with common sense though - the umpires tell the captain that their player is going too far and the captain has the option to do something about it). If the player goes on with it they are reported, and here's the good bit - if the player is suspended, so is the captain and the team loses 5 competition points.
It's an attempt to stop what happened a few years ago when, in the middle of a heated argument, one fielder ripped out a stump and tried to stab the batsman with it. He got a life ban, although he may still open the bowling for the Long Bay Gaol XI.
The solution is simple - tell the kid to shut up, and if he won't make him run from fine leg to fine leg for the rest of the day and see how he likes it.
We all know that adults do it and the kid are emulating them but is sh*ts me to tears, frankly. It's embarrassing to see kids who barely come up to the bails abusing each other or just carrying on like pork chops.
I'm no wowser in general, but seing kids sledge is just a real bad look imo. On the weekend I was coaching my 5 year old at soccer. He asks me after the game "Did we score more goals or did they?" "They did". "I hate them, Dad". Surely a potential Aussie Test cricketer there!!! I had to explain to him how it's not right to be like that, and I think he got it. But kids by definition are immature so if they are allowed to sledge their comments will be puerile at best and vicious (as kids so often are) at worst.
As for me, I generally dont have anything to say on the field, unless someone says something to me 1st, then all bets are off. But you tend to get away with a lot more when you've been playig for 32 years and all the umpires know you. Double standard I know, but that's the way I feel about it.
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Sure. Let them show some passion and intensity as long as it doesn't get too offensive. One reason I love to field at point is so I can sledge the hell out of the batsman. :cool:

Another reason: so I can do "stuff" to the ball. :ph34r:
Haha. My kind of man.

But yeah, get stuck in.
 

Top