Sledging. Why Is It Ok?

[10ClarionSt]

I've heard various people saying that sledging is ok but the Aussies went OTT with it, but why is it ok? They don't do it in some other sports. Golf, for example. Can you imagine one player sledging another just as he's about to putt? There's more money at stake for these guys than cricketers. Footballers do it all the time but why is acceptable in some but not others?

[Stephen_G]

Sometimes it starts because the batsmen are running the game and the bowlers can't get them out. It can be frustration on the part of the fielding side. IF the first test had been a crushing win for England, then the Aussies would have been bricking it. They don't have the Warnes and McGraths to take up the ball and magic up a wicket. They do have good players and they can change the game, but England also have the weapons to take the game away rom the Aussies.

If a Golfer sledged another Golfer they'd probably be thrown out of the tournament - they have Officials with every game out on course. The same with sports like Snooker.

[Old_Geezer]

Why would they be playing winter sports on a cricket pitch or golf course ?

[Brinjal]

Warne was a notorious sledger

[ChillDoubt]

I saw no harm in what happened in the first test, in fact I thought it was par for the course as Ashes Tests go.
Oz have lost the last 3 series so they're hardly going to give us this one on a platter in their own back yard.
When Clarke promised Jimmy a broken arm, Jimmy should have promised him a broken nose with some short stuff in the next Test.
As for George Bailey doing it, that must have been akin to being savaged by a tortoise.
As long as it doesn't get personal I don't want players bleating to the umpire about it. Man up and grow a pair, this is Test cricket in a hostile environment and Ashes cricket to boot, everyone knows it isn't go to be easy.

[RATTER15]

What is sledging?

[ChillDoubt]

Basically, what Steve Waugh used to call 'psychological disintegration' or something similar. Whilst standing close to the batsmen the keeper and other fielders will question a batsman's technique, his average, address his fears about a short ball to the head or body, basically anything to get under his skin and 'inside his head' making him doubt himself or even become fearful.
It tempts some into playing timidly or adversely taking a wild swing at the ball, invariably missing and being bowled or caught.

[RATTER15]

Thanks, and I thought cricket was a gentlemans sport, that really doesn't sound like its playing a fair game, its just not cricket!!!

[ChillDoubt]

It goes on to one degree or another in all forms of the game Ratter.
For some it's mild banter, some succumb to it, to some it's like water off a ducks back, others like Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad positively revel in it, it spurs them on.

[Hopkirk]

I have no doubt that our boys are just as guilty as the Aussies.

[Zacs-Master]

Anyone who's heard a famous cricketer speak at an after dinner bash would know that it's all just part of the game.

[Hopkirk]

Apparently in football, there was a simple way to break goalkeeper David James's concentration.

You just asked him how his kids were. Shortly afterwards he would be picking the ball out of his net.

[jno]

re golfers just about to putt - I don't think it's acceptable just when the bowler's delivering the ball; the batsman would steap away and say he was distracted. Most of the comments come before the bowler starts running.

Some sledging goes awry - most famously, skinny Aussie bowler Glenn McGrath to stout Zimbabwean batsman Eddo Brandes: "Oi, Brandes, why are you so fat?"

Instant reply from Brandes: "Because every time I **** your wife she gives me a biscuit."

Or Aussie wicketkeeper Rod Marsh to Ian Botham: "How's your wife... and my kids?"

Botham: "Wife's fine, kids are retarded."

[jomifl]

Why not just have a sledging competition and leave all the paraphenalia out of it, a bit like the comments on youtube.

[sunny-dave]

It has a long history - from the 1930s :


England player Douglas Jardine complained that one of the Australian players called him a bastard.

Australian captain Bill Woodfull turned to his team, points to Jardine and asked ...

“Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?”

[sandyRoe]

It's not cricket.