A line in the mud: Australia's murky alibi

Over the course of the past few months, there’s been a phrase constantly uttered by members of the Australian cricket team and the surrounding support behind it.

“The Line.”

Nathan Lyon, Steven Smith and most recently David Warner have used this supposed ‘Line’ as a basis for their behaviour on the field.

“We headbutt the line,” said Nathan Lyon, in a press conference before the Ashes series. It was an interesting comment that we would later find out was foreshadowing the news to break of the Jonny Bairstow incident.

But since that comment, it has taken on a whole new meaning, especially with the recent saga of Warner and South African wicketkeeper Quinton De Kock.

Australia, for all the talent and prowess it possesses, is a constant in the debate of sledging and the ‘spirit of the game’. To them, they play hard and they attack the batsmen as much with verbal assaults as they do with speed and pace.

But what is to say that the Australians play cricket in the ‘spirit of the game’? Who is to say that they don’t go too far, what guides these warriors from saying something that reaches beyond the game?

Well, the Line, of course!

In its reality, the Line is an ambiguous moral code that Australia abides by, or so it says. Before the Line lies a variety of sledges about a batsmen’s technique, about his weight, or his hair.

Maybe his name, or perhaps his running between wickets?

If you decide to cross the Line, you will find…well, that depends. Sometimes, you find big send-offs as something that is crossing the line. Other times, personal sledges about a family member, or even coming into intentional contact is crossing the line.

Really, whatever crosses the Line is up to the Australians. It constantly changes, and it always seems up to the Australian’s discretion to what crosses the Line.

It seems that standing in the field all day, supported by ten other teammates, makes it perfectly okay to constantly taunt, abuse and attack one person, making fun of his name, running into a batsman’s face and screaming at him for running out his partner (something that would not actually be his fault), or calling him a “f**king sook”.

That, remember, is all within the ‘spirit of the game’.

But when said batsman, who has seen his partner and himself abused for the better part of three hours bites back and makes a comment about the abusers family, that is something that is “vile and disgusting”.

And who decides what crosses the line? The Australians, of course!

Sledging is an interesting dynamic. It has seemed to be a part of Australian cricket for many years, to try to put a batsman off his game and get inside his head.

Go down to club cricket, and you will be able to hear the chirping from the boundary line. Australia, have just accepted it into their culture.

There is this constant saying of “play hard, but play fair”, though this opens up a whole other can of worms. What is hard? Again, we are drawn back to the line.

Now the South African cricketers have an interesting situation on their hands. They have seen how Warner reacted to De Kock’s comment, and for a nation that has so often been compared to that of Australia, do they take this sledging debate a step further?

Will this be brought up again on the field? Warner is only one incident away from a suspension.

Kagiso Rabada was told by the Australians that they were going to try to get him fired up enough to warrant a suspension from the ICC, so why not Warner?

(AP Photo/Mark Baker)

While many cricket commentators have lamented the fact that this saga dominated the headlines, when it should have been the cricket instead, these conversations need to be had.

Quinton De Kock took abuse hurled at him, got called a sook, and when he finally bit back, Warner exploded and had to be held back by three teammates.

And then, David Warner, Steve Smith and the rest of the Australian cricket team stood back, and with all their innocence and gentlemanly authority, mixed with the greatest hypocrisy that the world could see, told of the day that the Line had been crossed.

How dare Quinton De Kock, hey?