Cricket without sledging: Might as well play checkers in your living room

ICC, you protest too much and over too little. You and several other holier-than-thou protectors of the gentleman’s game are not just playing referee. This is sermonising and, let’s face it, ain’t nobody got time for that. Just as cricket threatens to get interesting and fun again, the moralising begins. The angst is inexplicable. To repeat what some former players and experts are saying, verbal fisticuffs are hardly novel in sport, even cricket. Worse has been said about mothers and wives and girlfriends in the throes of “war”. Michael Clarke’s aggression was tame compared to the uglier, personal comments that have been glossed over just because they were not picked up by a lurking microphone. [caption id=“attachment_1255707” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  David Warner likes to have a chat with the opposition. Getty Images[/caption] Having said that, the penalty that was imposed on the Australian captain (20 percent of his match fees) is not befuddling; what is tedious is the subsequent self-righteousness and affront. The British, particularly, have put on their preacher hat. Take this comment piece in the UK daily, The Independent, titled, The case of Jonathan Trott has shone a light on the thug culture of ‘sledging’. The newspaper writes: “Warner was the kid who ran around the schoolyard terrorising sensitive souls with cries of “scaredy cat, scaredy cat”. That attack on Trott showed he still occupies the same mental space.” It goes on to berate Clarke for “leading by example” with his “arm-breaking” dig on Jimmy Anderson. On the other side of the coin, several cricketers, mostly Australian, have defended Clarke by saying that he was just playing hard. “That’s how we play our best cricket,” Paul Marsh, CEO of the Australian Cricketers Association told ESPNcricinfo. “To be aggressive on the field is what I think the Australian cricket team needs to do and I thought it was terrific that they did that. I think the majority of the Australian public were very buoyed by the way they played, the aggression they showed on the field, so I hope there’s no attempt to rein them in,” he was quoted as saying. It’s true: Aggression is Australia’s calling card. Some of their skirmishes are now legendary – Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald has compiled the worse sledges in cricket history and no prizes for guessing the common link. Now who knows what came first – confidence or success – but both seem to be inextricably interlinked as far as the Australian cricket team is concerned. They have been tamed for too long. Failure led to diffidence and, to be honest, anyone would look silly being assertive in the face of such poor form. But the Brisbane brouhaha was well-timed. And though world cricket may be wearing its most self-righteous face, the fans are not complaining, and not just those from Down Under: Cricket-watchers prefer to see Australia fight rather than grin toothless. It is far more fun to battle a team than feel sorry for it. This is a familiar, provocative face that seems to lend itself to exciting cricket, much to the chagrin of the self-righteous. They can question why sledging has gained such widespread acceptability but they can’t really wish it away. (Especially since many countries that get irked by Australian aggro also, ironically, flatter by imitation.) Of course, there can never be a case for endorsing personal attacks and humiliating banter but remove even basic verbal duelling from the sport and you might as well play checkers in your living room. But wait: What if the nephew heckles you? The author writes on popular culture, cricket and whatever else takes her fancy. She tweets @abbykhaitan