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Well I’ll be. The ICC has moved with unheard of speed to fine Australian skipper Michael Clarke 20 per cent of his match fee for sledging England’s paceman James Anderson with his “f****** broken arm” quote.
Normally it takes cricket’s governing body forever to move on anything, unless there’s a stick of dynamite under their individual chairs.
But in less than 24 hours, Clarke had to fork out over $3,000, for bashing with a feather.
Having said that, the skipper wasn’t too smart to let fly within range of the stump microphone for all and sundry to hear it.
I always believe what happens in the middle stays in the middle in any sport. But I can understand there are a lot of mums who wouldn’t have appreciated Clarke’s outburst.
But sledging is here to stay, it’s been around since the late 1800s with the likes of the infamous Dr WG Grace – the first cricketing superstar who doubled up as a bully – throwing his massive frame around to great effect.
He sledged for all his record 44 seasons of first-class cricket, and he was still scoring runs and taking wickets at 60.
The only time sledging was outlawed was by Don Bradman, who loathed the practice, believing it was a form of cheating.
He told his troops they would get one warning, and if they repeated he would make sure they were never selected in the Test team again. A pretty strong deterrent.
It’s a strong bet the fiesty Bill O’Reilly disagreed with that Bradman edict, but then they disagreed on a whole range of topics.
I had a run-in with Bill at Adelaide Oval in the early 70s. There had been a bit of a blow-up with Ian Chappell sledging the day before, and he was one of the best.
O’Reilly shocked everyone in the press box before play started by saying sledging never happened in his day, and he didn’t know what the sport was coming to.
I was standing beside him and said, “Ace it up Bill, they didn’t call you Tiger and Snarler for nothing, you were no choir boy.”
At that point Alan McGilvray, Norman May, Lindsay Hassett and Keith Miller disappeared very quickly, they knew the signs of an O’Reilly blow-up.
“Listen you young whipper-snapper,” O’Reilly roared, “when I say there was no sledging in my day, there was no sledging, OK?”
We begged to differ, but Bill didn’t speak to me for the rest of the Test. Come Melbourne he was back to his pleasant best, as though nothing had happened.
Needless to say, I didn’t bring up the subject again, I had too much respect for the big bloke.
Did I believe in sledging? No I didn’t.
I had more than enough on my plate as captain of Mosman trying to get 10 of the opposition out to waste time trying to think of some smart remark.
But one obvious sledge possibility fell into my lap, and I grabbed it.
Graeme Hughes, the last to play for NSW in cricket and rugby league in the same year, made his first-grade cricket debut against us at Mosman Oval when he was 16.
This was in the early 70s.
He strutted to the centre full on confidence to join his father Noel, It was the only time in my 17 tears of first-grade I played against a father and son.
Noel was batting superbly, as he always did against us, even though he was well into his 40s.
But Graeme just couldn’t get the strike, and he was champing at the bit with impatience.
He called for a quick run, but Noel said no, and Graeme was run out by the length of the pitch for a duck, without facing a ball.
The steam was pouring out of his ears, he was fuming, and Dad obviously felt sorry for his son to get out that way without scoring.
I was walking past Noel and couldn’t resist saying,”Should be an interesting breakfast over the weet-bix tomorrow Noel”.
He gave me an instant gobful, now he was fuming. He played his first false stroke next ball and was out.
The gobful continued all the way to the shed, but he had quietened down over a beer after stumps.
Graeme hadn’t.
Look, I have no problems with anyone who sledges. My attitude to any sledging I copped was to do what Alastair Cook did to Mitchell Johnson at the Gabba – just turn the back.
Nothing gets a bowler more annoyed than having his sledging ignored. Generally they bowl crap when they are mad, and easy pickings make the bowler even more annoyed.
More crap, more runs.
Whatever the reasons, sledging is here to stay, and will be until the end of time.
One thing for sure, this Ashes series has taken on a new meaning with Australia’s 381-run flogging of England inside four days, and Michael Clarke’s outburst.
So let’s sit back and watch the action. There will be plenty of it.