What is the thin line between Sledging and banter or abuse they all are talking about all these years? This question is as subjective and as unanswerable as 'Egg or Chicken!' Sledging has gone on throughout the 150 plus years of cricket and it has produced some great as well as funny moments along the way. But there has to be a line where it has to stop, it should not go down the wrong road where either of the players get hurt by the comments made. There has been a lot of talk and harsh comments made on Virat Kohli's attitude for being in opposition's ear all the time. Mitchell Johnson came out and called Virat's behaviour foolish. Being a cricket fan, you have to like Virat's attitude and competitiveness that is actually making our game exciting. If chirping gets the best of him, why not? As long as he is not crossing the line, it's perfectly all right! But this is not about Virat but the game of cricket. There is a thing about sledging. You only ever target the person you think you can affect. There are players like Virat who you don't want to rile up or players like Alastair Cook who are as cool as cucumber and they never get flustered. You don't want to waste your energy on such players especially playing in 40 degrees down under or in the subcontinent. Sir Ian Botham once said -"When I was up against Alan Border, David Boon, Gorden Greenidge or Viv Richards, I wouldn't say anything to them because you don't want to wake them up. Just leave it and hope that they are still thinking about the dinner they had last night or in Viv's case, where he'd been last night!" The exact opposite example of it is the Ian Bell-Shane Warne incident in Melbourne 2006. Warney was bowling a tight length to the relatively new Ian Bell in front of 90000 Australians and the sherminator came on! Belly was trying to figure out what the sherminator was before getting out. He must have googled it at night!
There is no way ICC can stop chirping and sledging on field but it can reduce the involvement of media in these matters. For example, the chit-chat between Virat Kohli and Tim Paine was exagerrated by media. There wasn't much in it. It was all in good spirit and it was good on umpire Chris Gaffeney's part that he intervened and calmed down both of them. And this is where on field umpires have an important role to play. They talk about the match referees not doing justice to either of the sides but on field umpires have the control and power to calm the players down which they are supposed to do. If you ask any modern cricketer or former cricketer, the only thing they will say is that sledging does go on but it happens on the field and should remain on the field. I know stump mics play a very important role in making the game better but those are controlled only by the producers and the broadcasters. ICC should find a solution in which the words said on the field do not go out. Because if players start getting afraid of the punishment inflicted because of sledging on the field, it will only make our game less exciting if not boring!
There is no way ICC can stop chirping and sledging on field but it can reduce the involvement of media in these matters. For example, the chit-chat between Virat Kohli and Tim Paine was exagerrated by media. There wasn't much in it. It was all in good spirit and it was good on umpire Chris Gaffeney's part that he intervened and calmed down both of them. And this is where on field umpires have an important role to play. They talk about the match referees not doing justice to either of the sides but on field umpires have the control and power to calm the players down which they are supposed to do. If you ask any modern cricketer or former cricketer, the only thing they will say is that sledging does go on but it happens on the field and should remain on the field. I know stump mics play a very important role in making the game better but those are controlled only by the producers and the broadcasters. ICC should find a solution in which the words said on the field do not go out. Because if players start getting afraid of the punishment inflicted because of sledging on the field, it will only make our game less exciting if not boring!
Completely agree with you...!! But I would still love bat or ball or even fielding do all talking rather than getting into this.. It does bring out competitive spirit, probably best out of players; but dents impression of the game as a whole..
ReplyDeleteAbout media, what to say? They do their job, it's players duty to ensure not to give them chance of gossiping..
Wonder what happened between Ishnat and Sir Jadeja.. If rumours of IPL contracts are to be believed, then I am disturbed..!!
The reason people are taking a tol on virat is because, for past 10 years we have witnessed our captain being this cool and composed guy adding to this the hero of our nation sachin tendulkar also potrayed the same in his style.. Now after many years the image of a national hero has changed.. we expect virat to be composed just like MS or Tendulkar but are not ready to except that this is how virat kohli is and its the start of a new era and should go on with the flow and except the change.. Adding to this to be called on as a national hero or someone to whom people look up to, Virat on his part should slightly control this behaviour because for all these years we indians used to curse Ricky Ponting because he was doing the same what Virat is doing now. So its a bit confusing for the audience as well whether to except Virat the way he is or think about the past and forgive Ricky Ponting.
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