Sledging

[amokk1]

According to the latest reports on cricinfo, Andrew Symonds has named sledgers Sreesanth and Harbhjan Singh as the two main instigators of the bad blood that has occurred in this series between Australia and India.

Previous examples of sledging also include when Andrew Flintoff said to Tino Best, "Mind the windows" and got him stumped the next ball, or the sledging showed by Sangakarra when Pollock walked into bat. Also, there is the famous McGrath-Sarwan incident. And, if I recall from the Ashes in 02/03, Robert Key made a comment that a player (Hayden?) on the field made a remark about his weight and how he could not fit into his test shirt properly.

Personally, I found all this instances very entertaining and amusing, while other individuals may disagree with me. However, I am sure most members will agree that sledging adds a little more spice and excitement to the game.

However, the main question is, when is sledging considered beyond acceptable limits in regards to the spirit of cricket? If sledging can be defined as "the practice in cricket of insulting opponents to break their concentration and cause them to make mistakes". Then, when does sledging actually stop being sledging and moves into perhaps, a more personal level (McGrath-Sarwan) and what are the boundaries in your opinion that makes sledging acceptable and unacceptable? Or is there just no room for sledging in cricket?

 

[haroon510]

i would think sledging should be kept in the ground.. the crosing line would be when they say something bad about each other's country or family..

they need to have the sense of sportmanship.. they should keep it in the field.. i honestly enjoyed Gayle vs KP this past summer.. they kept everything in the ground.. at the end of the day they huged each other and showed respect and sportmanship to each other....

i would never tolarated morons like sreesanth.. who has no sense of sportmanship and respect for his elders and players who are sinior and better than him sledeging the likes of inzi, pointing, KP, Lara and so on..

 

[sideshowtim]

Racism is the only line.

 

[umop 3p!sdn]

Racism is the only line.

Really? I think most things can be taken a bit far. I think as long as it stays on the pitch, and obvious boundaries are not crossed, then it's ok. Also as long as the spirit of the game remains then I think it is ok the majority of the time. A bit of banter adds to the excitement of it all.

 

[Richard]

Racism is the only line.

Disagree. I don't feel it's in the slightest appropriate to make train noises at someone whose sister died in a train crash either. Not in the slightest.

Or anything similar to that.

Or

C'mon then yer ****ing stupid ****, you really think you're ****ing good enough to beat us?

either.

 

[Perm]

That second one is fine, if you can't handle bad language then you're pretty weak mentally.

 

[Richard]

It's not about the bad language; it's about the viciousness of the attack (regardless of language used) for no good reason.

 

[Perm]

It's not about the bad language; it's about the viciousness of the attack (regardless of language used) for no good reason.

And it's designed to be a mental test.

 

[Dasa]

All sledging is stupid.

 

[Perm]

All sledging is stupid.

'Fraid not.

 

[Flem274*]

If they banned sledging then everyone I played with or against last season would only be alowed to play gagged. It was good for the games, kept us awake and concentrating on what we were doing. No one crossed the line and got offensive.

 

[BoyBrumby]

All sledging is stupid.

99% might be, but some is actually pretty witty. One example that isn't one of the same tired old chestnuts was related, of all places, in Martin Corry's column in The Guardian last Saturday. Linky:

Cozza says of Michael Atherton,

He's nicked one to Healy, the umpire hasn't seen it, and Healy has unloaded a torrent of invective, the politest of which was "You cheating bastard". Atherton, I'm told, just turned around and replied: "When in Rome, dear boy. . . "

 

[Dasa]

Mean the idea of it tbh.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Mean the idea of it tbh.

Ah, fair enough. Can't say I'm totally in agreement then. Can serve a purpose, but needs to be backed up with a bit of playing substance or one ends up looking like a complete tool Matt Prior.

 

[Perm]

Mean the idea of it tbh.

Unsettling your opponents and gaining an advantage? Yup, stupid.

 

[Dasa]

Unsettling your opponents and gaining an advantage? Yup, stupid.

Could be a little less rude really. Anyway, to me sport is all about having fun, and sledging etc takes away the fun of it for me, even if it might help me or my team to a win.

 

[amokk1]

Unsettling your opponents and gaining an advantage? Yup, stupid.

I have to disagree. Unsettling your opponents and gaining an advantage? Why not? If the players are not mentally tough enough to handle everything that occurs in the game of cricket, including sledging which I assume is part of the game, than their weakness should be exploited by the other side.

Example being the recent rugby match quarter finals which involved Australia and England and where England I believe won that game because their forward packed outclassed the Australia forward pack in the scrum while they were pretty even on other aspects of the game.

Same circumstances here, if a team is weak in one aspect of the game, teams will always utilize that situation to their advantage and full credit to them.

If sledging is part of the game and remains so, than teams need to educate themselves better on how to handle it, rather than complaining or trying to ban it.

 

[andyc]

Disagree. I don't feel it's in the slightest appropriate to make train noises at someone whose sister died in a train crash either. Not in the slightest.

Not that it happened, mind you.

 

[Swervy]

Disagree. I don't feel it's in the slightest appropriate to make train noises at someone whose sister died in a train crash either. Not in the slightest.

Which I beleive Chris Cairns said never happened anyway

 

[Matt79]

Yeah, I was going to say, every player on the ground the day that supposedly happened has come out and said it didn't occur...