Mind your language Mister!
Sledging has been part of cricketing history for as long as we can remember. For all we cricket fans know, the act of mental disintegration has been a part of cricket since “willow first struck leather” whenever that was. It has been a particularly important part of Australian cricket ever since the inception of sledging. They have taken great pride in being a cocky bunch; however they have had their fair share of replies as they went along the way. The term sledging in itself was coined as the act of coming down at another person with a sledge hammer.
Many amusing incidents of sledging have been reported with most cases being reported regarding the Aussies. In one such reported incident between Rodney Marsh from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, and England’s Ian Botham, Rodney retorted to Botham, “How’s your wife and my kids?” Botham replied, “The wife is good and the kids are retarded.”
Many argue that sledging is and has been a part of cricket since the very beginning of the game with the first reported incident of sledging dating back to as early as 1898. The incident is recorded in a match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783 where the umpires refused to give WG Grace out on more than one occasion. Finally, Kortright got him clean bowled, and as Grace was leaving the field, he said: "Surely you're not going, Doc? There's still one stump standing."
However, such incidents were made in good humour and taste, and did not work against the basic tenets of the game. The Australians are particularly proud of their culture of sledging, which is the art of abusing other cricketers. They feel that this art takes years of practice, and once perfected includes mother, sister and father jokes amongst many other lewd comments that are found in the “best” interests of the game.
Merv Hughes is one such character who is famous, rather notorious for his unwelcoming and vulgar remarks on the field. One such incident recalls Viv Richards hitting Merv Hughes for four consecutive boundaries in a single over. Merv stopped halfway down the pitch, farted loudly, and said to Vivian Richards “let’s see you hit that to the boundary!”
Australian Fast bowler Glen McGrath seemed to be greatly interested with Brian Lara’s p***s and inquired from Ramnaresh Sarwan (who had hit the great Australian bowler for a lot of runs) regarding how Lara’s p***s tasted like. In a quick retort, Sarwan replied, “ask your wife.” This caused the Australian fast bowler to lose his cool, and threaten the batsman. Result - Sarwan went on to make a century.
This culture of sledging led to a huge controversy in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds, who reportedly complained to the authorities that Harbhajan had racially abused Symonds by calling him a ‘monkey’. Harbhajan had however abused him in the Hindi language which Symonds reportedly did not understand. This controversy led to a 3 match ban against the Indian player. However, the charges were not proven and Harbhajan was later on charged with a fine of 50% of his match fee.
Sledging however is in essence against the long established culture of the game of gentlemen. By using foul language, they are not only harbouring enmity against their opposition sides but also setting a bad example for the youngsters who are obsessed with the game of cricket. Jokes in good humour are one thing, but racial slurs and using lewd language is absolutely uncalled for. The Australians take great pride in this practise, when this has nothing to do with their success in the cricketing world. Their period of international domination in the cricketing world is a relatively new phenomenon, and many cricketing legends have led the field by example and not by resorting to swearing in the cricketing arena. One can only hope that the world champions stop taking so much pride in a very primal and uncultured practice that is completely uncalled for in the game of cricket.
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