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Australia are the World Champions and deservedly so. Their clinical display in the final showcased a well-balanced cricket team with strength in every department; except what comes out of their mouths.
Once again deliberate, unsporting and unnecessary abuse of opposition players has overshadowed a magnificent win and captured worldwide headlines.
Cricket is a competitive game and occasionally tempers can fray. Furthermore, amusement can be derived from witty banter.
But is there a team anywhere in the world at any time in history that deliberately seeks to intimidate and distract the opposition through relentless and classless personal abuse?
Sledging was rampant as early as the 1974-75 Ashes series.
Tom Graveney wrote, “It was an open secret that [Ian Chappell] used to encourage his players to give a lot of verbal abuse to rival batsman when they were at the wicket in an attempt to break their concentration.”
In 1974 New Zealand batsman Glenn Tuner was sledged by the Australians because he was married to an Indian woman.
In 1995 there was nearly a fight between Steve Waugh and Curtly Ambrose.
In 2009 Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds behaved like petulant schoolboys, accusing one another of being racist.
In 2013 Michael Clarke threatened to break James Anderson’s arm.
In 2014 Faf du Plessis compared Australia’s on-field conduct to a pack of dogs.
Sledging in the Australia cricket team appears to be a pre-requisite, a code of honour. Brad Haddin, Merv Hughes, Denis Lillie, Ian Chappell, Glenn McGrath, David Warner and Shane Warne, to name a few, all abused their opposition.
Apparently it’s a part of the game and they’re all good blokes.
The great sports teams of the world – the All Blacks, Real Madrid, the New England Patriots – have built a fabled record. Of course they have been involved in some controversial and unfortunate moments, but have they built a legacy of success while sounding like coarse bogans?
Sledging of course happens in other sports. Harry Jones in his excellent piece about sledging quoted an American study that suggested male athletes encounter or dish out a sledge in about one-third of athletic contests (and it is relatively constant across sports). But does it have the sinister, historical and cynical overtures of the Australian cricket team?
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