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It would not be an Australian summer of cricket if there was no sledging on the field. And it would not be an Australian summer of cricket without heated debate about the legality of the tactic.
The Australians are renowned for their sledging but every other Test playing nation in the world also sledges and it isn’t confined to cricket.
Sledging happens in every major professional sport around the world, it is just less obvious. Generally I am okay with sledging, but there is a line and it should not be crossed.
Many of the arguments against the practice of sledging refer to the idea that cricket is a gentlemen’s game, and that such unsportsmanlike acts have no place in the gentle sport. This belies the fact that sledging, in one form or another, has been around for as long as the sport of cricket.
The proximity of the batsmen and fielders has always fostered chat between those out in the middle. It may not have been as brutal as it is today but sledging has always existed.
The aims of sledging are clear, to get inside the head of your opponent and put them off their game. Mental disintegration as it has become known. It is used heavily in cricket because it only takes one lapse in judgement to lose your wicket. But it can be incredibly effective in other ball sports. If you are able to get inside the head of a five-eighth in a game of rugby union or a football goalkeeper you can be well on the way to victory.
Sledging has been around for more than a century and can be incredibly effective in giving your team an edge, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is right. It was legal for Trevor Chappell to bowl the ball underarm against New Zealand but it most definitely wasn’t right.
I can understand why people think that the outcome of sporting matches should come down to who was the best team on the day, not who had the best mouths. But surely if you can’t deal with a bit of banter you don’t deserve to be playing professional sport.
In today’s day and age, the mental side of things has become as much a determinant of success as the physical side. Some of the best athletes in the world are those who are able to simply block this meaningless chatter out and respond with their performances on the field. Think Viv Richards, Michael Clarke and even Stuart Broad in last year’s Ashes, who copped it from the fans, media and Australian players.
The difference between sledging in cricket and sledging in rugby league, union, AFL, football and netball is that everyone sees sledging in cricket and stump mics pick every comment up, even if we’re not meant to hear them. It is much harder to actually spot sledging in other team sports.
Obviously there are some clear examples during breaks in play, at scrums, in lineouts and before free kicks, but on the most part the sledging is much more subtle. The TV cameras do not pick up constant whispering in the ear of the man, or woman, marking you when the ball is at the other end of the field.
No referee mic will pick up the chatter that occurs at the bottom of a ruck. The only time we really hear about sledging in these team sports is when someone says something highly inappropriate that is either picked up by an on-field microphone or elicits a violent response.
Typically if this occurs, the sledger has crossed the line. Ah the line, a vague line that marks the difference between acceptable and unacceptable sledges. The location of the line is different for every athlete and crossing the line will produce a different response from each athlete.
The subjects that cross the line are generally accepted to be players’ families, wives, girlfriends, sisters, racism and other topics of that ilk. One would also argue that Virat Kohli’s behaviour in the second innings of last week’s Boxing Day Test, when he repeatedly ran from mid-on to Brad Haddin at the striker’s end and abused him, crossed the line.
Crossing the line is where sledging gets unsportsmanlike. Abusing someone’s mother is not witty banter used to get inside an opponent’s head. It is verbal abuse and would get the layman fired in a typical workplace. Can you imagine the outrage if Dave Smith sent out a tweet abusing Gill McLachlan’s mother, calling her names that are not safe for print?
That is essentially what athletes are doing, abusing their opponents in plain view of the public. Dave Smith would be forced to resign in disgrace, it would be a PR disaster for the NRL and the media would have a field day.
When Michael Ennis, rugby league’s biggest sledger, does this he’s often hailed a hero, celebrated for getting inside the head of his opponents, rewarded for getting a normally mild mannered Nathan Hindmarsh to bite, fight back and as a result sent to the sin bin.
You can get inside the head of your opponents without reverting to childish abuse of family members. You just need to be smart and witty enough to do so.
A concerning aspect of sledging is that it is starting to proliferate in junior sports. Not as prevalent as the senior ranks but it is concerning nonetheless. These junior athletes see their professional heroes constantly chatting throughout the match and replicate it. The junior athletes are really poor at sledging and sledging at this level typically devolves into shouting matches.
It’s not a good look when opposition football teams are screaming at each other from 10 metres away, especially when the screams are often a variation of ‘I’m going to smash you’ with a few choice words thrown in for good measure.
Additionally, in the football codes this shouting is often taken as a challenge to combat and combat is what occurs. Ugly fights break out, players get injured, referees struggle to break it up and in the worst scenarios spectators enter the fray carrying weapons. Typically when sledging is occurring at junior level it can get very ugly and all it can take is one high tackle or a late hit and it’s on.
To make matters worse, the sledging at junior level is then continued as the juniors progress into semi-pro levels of competition – Shute Shield rugby union, NSW Cup rugby league, Sydney first grade cricket, VFL, the list goes on. The sledging at this level is far more vicious and brutal than at the top-level. This is because it is effectively unregulated, there are no cameras or on-field microphones to keep the players in check and the players are often playing this level of competition because they are less disciplined.
Here the sledging often crosses the line and the players on the receiving end are unable to respond in a suitable manner. They either respond with an even more inappropriate sledge, the more likely outcome in cricket, or with violence. This second option is especially concerning for cricket, where batsmen are running around with big, heavy bats. Tick them off and it is entirely possible that they will respond by swinging or throwing the bat towards the fielders instead of the cricket ball, a la Marlon Samuels.
This situation, where the batsmen react with violence, is exactly what former Australian captain Ian Chappell has recently said is one of his biggest concerns with sledging, both in the commentary box and in newspaper columns. It’s interesting though that Chappell is voicing his concerns with sledging given his history with the practice.
As an Australian captain, Chappell became renowned for his encouragement of sledging. The Australian team sledged so much that they were labeled the ‘Ugly Australians’. Chappell repeatedly instructed his players to mentally disintegrate their opponents and verbally abuse them. But now he is claiming that gamesmanship is acceptable, verbal abuse is not.
Through these comments Chappell is either outing himself as a hypocrite or claiming that what he delivered was simply gamesmanship, adding humour and wit to the game of cricket. Plenty of historical accounts state that what his teams delivered was not gamesmanship.
Sledging is a very controversial aspect of all sports. There are so many issues surrounding the topic, especially surrounding its use in junior sport. The main problem, however, is where gamesmanship becomes abuse. This is very vague and the line differs for every person. Unfortunately crossing the line opens up a Pandora’s box of responses.
What do you think, should sledging be banned from sport or is it an integral part of the game?
Twitter: @fromthesheds
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