5 sledging players who couldn’t walk the talk

Over the years, sledging has turned out to be a major weapon for many cricketers to get under the skins of their rivals. While bowlers and fielders use it to unnerve batsmen into playing false strokes, batsmen use it to throw the bowlers off their line and lengths.

There have been several players who have preferred to sledge their opponents. The Aussies are mostly renowned in this department to daunt their rivals. However, with the passage of time, players from other nations have also picked it up.

Nevertheless, not all of them who like to sledge have been successful on the field as cricketers. In the slideshow, we take a look at five cricketers who prefers to sledge but have struggled in their respective cricketing careers.

#5 Greg Thomas

Greg Thomas had a short yet eventful stint in international cricket. He was hailed as one of the fastest bowlers of his generation to have played the game. The English pacer made his debut against West Indies in 1986, but couldn’t survive for long in top-level cricket.

However, in his short-lived career, he had the audacity to sledge the boisterous Sir Vivian Richards. In a county game, he went on to beat Richard’s bat quite a few times.

Thereafter he commented- “It’s red, round and weighs about 5 ounces in case you were wondering”. Richards smashed him for a six that went out of the ground and remarked, “Greg, you know what it looks like, now go and find it.”

He went on to play 5 Tests and 3 One Day Internationals for England, before announcing his retirement in 1991.

#4 Kemar Roach

West Indies v Pakistan: Group B - ICC Champions Trophy

Kemar Roach burst onto the scene as a bowler who could crank up the pace by a fair margin. The aggression shows off as he consistently breaches the 140 kmph mark and hurries the batsman with his pace.

Apart from his bowling, the right-arm fast bowler also likes to verbally intimidate batsmen. In the second Test of West Indies’ tour of South Africa in 2010, the tall and lanky pacer hurled in a barrage of bouncers to Jacques Kallis.

Afterwards, Roach repeatedly went up to Kallis for a heated exchange of words. Consequently, he was fined 50% of his match fees. Thereafter, his cricketing career hasn’t shaped up as per expectations.

The lanky fast-bowler has struggled throughout his career. He is a part of the Test squad, but shoddy performances in limited-overs cricket ensured that he last played an ODI way back in 2015.

#3 Rubel Hossain

Rubel Hossain

Rubel Hossain is fast and fiery, and is someone who always bowls his heart out. However, over the course of his career, the Bangladesh fast-bowler shared some heated altercations with the opposition players, especially Virat Kohli.

It all started in the opening game of the 2011 World Cup when Rubel verbally sledged Virat Kohli. Thereafter, the current Indian skipper gave it back to him with some stern words. The rivalry continued till the 2015 World Cup.

Kohli was dismissed cheaply by Rubel, after which the right-handed batsman received a full-blooded send-off by the fast-bowler. Nevertheless, the pacer has somewhat struggled in international cricket.

He made his debut in 2009 and has since played 25 Tests and 80 ODIs, which shows that he has been in and out of the national team. Also, among bowlers who have bowled more than 2500 deliveries in Test cricket, Rubel has the highest bowling average of 79, which is disappointing, to say the least.

#2 Matthew Wade

Matthew Wade

Matthew Wade is an experienced campaigner in the domestic circuit. He made his debut in 2011 and played quite a few games for Australia in international cricket. The man is short in stature but treads an aggressive route on the field.

Earlier this year when Australia toured India for a 4-match Test series, Wade got involved in a war of words with Ravindra Jadeja. Recently, in the One Day International series between the two cricketing giants, he also sledged Virat Kohli.

He even got into a verbal tussle with Marlon Samuels in the 2012 World T20. Nevertheless, the Australian wicket-keeper batsman hasn’t impressed as an international cricketer.

An average of 28.58 and 25.75 in ODIs and T20Is respectively are pretty disappointing figures for someone who has close to 150 international games under his belt.

#1 Sreesanth

S.Sreesanth

Shantakumaran Sreesanth isn’t an out-and-out fast bowler, but he is gifted with the ability to swing the ball both ways. He might be taken for runs but has been a genuine wicket-taker for India in all formats of the sport.

Sreesanth is someone who prefers to display an animated outlook on the field. He doesn’t mind sledging the opposition players and, at times, goes overboard with his celebrations. The Kerala-born speedstar has also gone into verbal spats with the likes of Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar.

However, marred with spot-fixing scandals, his career hasn’t gone in the right direction and he is presently struggling to find his feet back into competitive cricket.

His last international game was an ODI against Sri Lanka in the 2015 World Cup Final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.