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Shudder

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
What a load of crap. Giving Kholi a bit of lip isn't "****ing all over the essence of the sport" ffs.

Look to messrs Cronje, Asif etc if you want "****ing all over the essence of the sport".
Oh okay, so it's not ****ting all over the essence of the sport so long as someone else has done something worse?

It's bile. It's such unnecessary crap. It's awful to watch. And it's so far away from hard cricket, it ain't funny.

And the Kohli stuff isn't an isolated incident. Not by a long shot.

Mitchell Johnson - the guy who used to sleep with the light on, then got a few tatts and a bit of control, and all of a sudden he's Bruce Banner. Hits Kohli on the lid in the first Test, and acted like a decent human being. Then completely forgot about it all, threw a ball at him (oh no wait, Hads said it was at the stumps) and went back to the same bile-spitting, fake snarling goose he always was.

So yeah, that's where a lot of people are at with two Australians in particular.
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
This criticism of regular behaviour (however much to your distaste) is incredibly condescending.
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Not really aimed at you. But the no-mean-spirited-bouncers, and no-mean-sledging is definitely condescending to cricketers. Let them just do their job, It's not in their job description to be angels.
 

cnerd123

likes this
Hmmm.

Personally, I feel that the issue isn't bouncers and sledging, but the intention behind them.

If you use sledging as a genuine means of getting a wicket, I am all for it. I do it myself. You can taunt or goad a batsman about a supposed weakness in their game, in order to cause them to play unnaturally and lose a wicket, or you can try and anger a batsman with a short-temper to get them to throw their wicket away.

Similarly, a barrage of short bowling is completely legitimate when the batsman you are bowling to is known to have a weakness to the short delivery.

Even a combination of the two is legitimate when you know that intimidating the batsman is the best way to get him out.

But when it is used as a means of expressing 'aggression' and macho posturing under the guise of playing 'hard' and 'competitive' cricket, that's when it gets ugly. It is disrespectful to the sport.

For example, India clearly stand no hope of bowling a side out with the short ball (Lords aside). Their constant use of it, along with ugly snarly and jibes, against Australia in this current series clearly has more to do with them attempting to prove how tough they are, than it has to do with actually taking wickets and winning the game. It's pathetic and it's ugly, and it's not cricket.

Similarly, I saw a video once of Mark Boucher sledging Tatenda Taibu in an ODI where Zimbabwe were already losing. This was completely unnecessary, considering the game had been won, and they didn't need to sledge Taibu to get him out - the quality of their bowling attack would have been sufficient. Instead he was doing it because he and the other South Africans were annoyed by Taibu's sledging - a tactic more justified given pop-gun attack he had to work with. This was no longer sledging, this was just plain old bullying. And it was ugly and disrespectful and reflected poorly on Boucher and the team.

When used with the right intentions, sledging and intimidatory bowling are all well and good, and are actually a sign of respect. Douglas Jardine came up with Bodyline because he begrudgingly respected the strength of the Australia batting, and realised he'd have to do something more unorthodox to rattle them in order to win the series. He didn't do it because he felt a need to appear tough and to validate his ego, or because he felt the need to settle scores with the Aussies by breaking their ****ing arms. He did it to win a game of cricket. And as long as that's your goal, then sledging and bowling short are fine by me.
 
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SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Yep, that about sums up my sentiments too.

Interestingly, the term 'sledge' came from the shortening of 'subtle as a sledgehammer'. Which describes the way a few of the Aussies go about it to a tee.
 

the big bambino

International Captain
Oh okay, so it's not ****ting all over the essence of the sport so long as someone else has done something worse?

It's bile. It's such unnecessary crap. It's awful to watch. And it's so far away from hard cricket, it ain't funny.

And the Kohli stuff isn't an isolated incident. Not by a long shot.

Mitchell Johnson - the guy who used to sleep with the light on, then got a few tatts and a bit of control, and all of a sudden he's Bruce Banner. Hits Kohli on the lid in the first Test, and acted like a decent human being. Then completely forgot about it all, threw a ball at him (oh no wait, Hads said it was at the stumps) and went back to the same bile-spitting, fake snarling goose he always was.

So yeah, that's where a lot of people are at with two Australians in particular.
Oh ffs there have been others who've pinged at the stumps. Some have even been Un Australian...

Didn't Smith get zinged by a bowler in the same match?

As far as when sledging started in this series Johnson was batting at the time and copped it.

But yeah, its always convenient when you can express the sort of bias you seem to have against Australia as a stand against sledging.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Oh ffs there have been others who've pinged at the stumps. Some have even been Un Australian...

Didn't Smith get zinged by a bowler in the same match?

As far as when sledging started in this series Johnson was batting at the time and copped it.

But yeah, its always convenient when you can express the sort of bias you seem to have against Australia as a stand against sledging.
I live in Australia, so we'll rule that out. I have a great amount of respect for a lot of Australian cricketers. Just not Johnson and the yappy beagle behind the stumps. Warner seems to have grown up since becoming a father and realised it's all puss, so I won't mention him.

You're off your head if you think Johnson was a sleeping mouse until prodded. I honestly don't see any other side - bar probably England and a couple of their knobs - carrying on the way a couple of Aussies do. As I say ad nauseum, it's not hardness. It's not tough cricket. It's ugly. If another side was doing it, the CH9 commentators would jump on it. But they're so sickly sycophantic that it never gets a run.

But at the end of the day, there's people who see it my way, people who see it yours that people like me are precious lil princesses who should get on with the fact it's not a gentlemanly game and emotions will fray. Thing is, plenty of world-class sides over the journey have succeeded without it. Some of the hardest cricketers in Australia's history - Border, S Waugh etc - certainly got angry and into battles, but they didn't do so game after game, in nothing situations, against tailenders and in wars they didn't need to wage.
 

Swingpanzee

International Regular
Not really relevant to the topic and I don't really wanna argue about it anymore but Sulieman Benn was sledging Harmer yesterday. Don't know what to say.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
. It was talking about having a less at your throats kind of attitude. However, when these people are giving it their best at international level, where the level is absolute highest, you cannot ask them to temper down, else you temper down their performance.
Players do need to grow up and behave like men rather schoolyard bullies. The quality of sport in the Aus-India series has almost been as good as that in the NZ-SL series, but the quality of sportsmanship hadn't come close. I personally think Kohli and a few of the crims deserve a one-match ban.


Look at Richie McCaw (probably the greatest performer in a team sport since Jordan/Gretsky). I've never heard him sledging or seen him attacking anyone and yet he is consistently the best in the world.
 

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