Are cricket's sledging days over? ICC to start crackdown in World Cup

If the International Cricket Council has its way, then sledging on the cricket field may soon be a thing of the past. According to a report in The Times, the ICC will encourage umpires and match referees to clamp down on verbal sparring between players and aggressive, confrontational behaviour. The report further mentions that the ICC believed that images of sledging beamed to a global viewing audience during the World Cup would amount to “terrible publicity for the game.” [caption id=“attachment_2049663” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Things boiled over during the Test series. Getty Images[/caption] The ICC’s campaign against sledging follows a similar plan of action against illegal bowling actions and slow over rates this year. We have seen several players – from India’s Pragyan Ojha to Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal come under the scanner. Even West Indian mystery spinner Sunil Narine was in some trouble. “You play the game hard, absolutely, but there is nothing to be proud of about swearing or abusing another player,” an ICC source told The Times. “Poor behaviour can never be justified. “We do not want some repulsive confrontation at the World Cup. It would be terrible publicity for the game." In recent times, we have seen Virat Kohli clash with the Australian team during the Test series. It never got very ugly but there were many who were appalled with the behaviour of both teams. Then again, Australia have maintained that sledging is part of the game and others will say that trash talk has always been part of sport at every level.