Cricket and the art of sledging

When Ian Botham took guard in an Ashes Test, Rodney Marsh welcomed him by saying, “So how’s your wife and my kids?” and pat came the reply from Beefy, “The wife’s fine, the kids are retarded.” Mothers, wives and kids – no one is spared when it comes to a verbal rencontre in cricket or as we call it, sledging. Probably the only sport which is played not only by abiding the laws but also the ‘spirit’ of the game, cricket is known to be a gentleman’s game, but sometimes the very gentleman may become brattish or even make a rare wisecrack. This ‘gentlemanly’ aspect of the game evolved from the Victorian morality which is as outdated a concept as the era itself. With the advent of time, cricket has spanned various cultures and each one of them has painted the game with its own colourful style and often with its even more colourful language.

For an average cricket fan, ‘sledging’ would be a Gambhir-Afridi duel adorned with the choicest of expletives but digging deeper, sledging, as Steve Waugh has carefully put it in words, is a practice of ‘mental disintegration’. In a way, it is the constant pestering which gnaws at the mind of the batsman up to a point that he yields his wicket. Test cricket depends heavily on mental strength which needs to be maintained throughout the five days of play and sledging provides an additional strategy to unsettle the opposition. A perfect example would be Andrew Flintoff bullying Tino Best, who is known for his love for slogging. Before the delivery, Flintoff shouts from behind, “Watch the windows Tino!” and egged on by the sarcasm, Best comes forward, takes a swing at the ball and clearly misses it, only to be stumped out by Geraint Jones.

Sometimes, sledging tends to border on the lines of personal abuse. Just like no one talks about the Fight Club, there is an open secret that no one crosses the line while sledging. It got very ugly when Glenn McGrath, after going for 21 runs in 2 overs, went to Ramnaresh Sarwan and quipped, “What does Lara’s d*** tastes like?” to which Sarwan replied, “I don’t know, ask your wife.” Unfortunately, Jane McGrath was undergoing treatment for cancer at that time and despite Sarwan having no malicious intent , McGrath took it personally and threatened Sarwan, saying that he will rip his “f***ing throat out”. At the end of the day, the human factor does come in and unfortunately, the players do go overboard.

Right or wrong, sledging has given another dimension to the competitiveness involved in the sport and the Aussies have certainly mastered it as well as they have the other aspects of the game. The Australian team of 1974-75 was named ‘the Ugly Australians’ for their relentless fast bowling and sledging. Wisden reported that ‘behind the batsmen, Rod Marsh and his captain Ian Chappell would vie each other in profanity.’ Even Australian Rules Football has terms like ‘unsociable football’ and ‘sledging’. Perhaps, the Aussies like approaching every sport with a blatantly aggressive demeanour. Obviously, the players avoid getting the war of words off-limits, so much so that the officials do not have to intervene.

What Shane Warne did last week isn’t typically sledging. It was simply going over the top. Wearing an audible microphone and swearing at Samuels was uncalled for. The Big Bash League, a format as theatrical as the name itself, is telecasted during prime time, apparently targeting the young ones as the audience. Given that Warne’s personal Test or ODI career is over, he should just stick to giving it back to the game.

There have been players who don’t really endorse sledging or remain unfazed when sledged. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or Curtly Ambrose – they embody a mental strength which doesn’t waver when faced with disparaging remarks. There’s more to it than what meets the eye. If done with a little subtlety, pun and ingenuity, sledging is an art. It brings out the true character of the players. The quips, the friendly banter or even sometimes being a tough guy would be accepted if done in the ‘right’ spirit. Dennis Lillee had a sledge that he employed against many batsmen. He would say, “I can see why you are batting so badly, you’ve got some s**t on the end of your bat”. On hearing this, the batsman would flip his bat to check, to which Lillee would respond, “Wrong end mate”. In another famous incident, Daryll Cullinan was on his way to the wicket when Warne told him that he had been waiting 2 years for another chance to humiliate him. Cullinan, out of nowhere retorts, “looks like you spent it eating”. This chirpiness definitely lights up the field and may sometimes enhance the camaraderie between the individuals.

I sometimes wonder how our Indian team ‘sledges’. Every time Sreesanth or Ishant Sharma walk up to the batsman after a delivery, you get to hear from the commentators that there is an ‘exchange of words’. Well, how inventive are our players in exchanging words? Brett Lee once said in an interview that the Indian team called him ‘khargosh‘ (a Hindi term for rabbit). I must say this sounds pretty lame compared to the almost-stand-up-comedian-like antics of the Aussies or the English. Well, in due course of time, we may be as good sledgers as them but as of now, we desperately need to catch up with them in the game.

The custodians of the game do take it as their responsibility to act as the moral police and try to keep the ‘soul’ of the game intact. Unfortunately or otherwise, it has become an effective tactic in the modern day. Sledging is unethical, period; but is it crossing the limit of sportsmanship? Well, as long as it doesn’t get ugly and provides the audience with interesting anecdotes, we wouldn’t mind.