Only stop the sledging if it goes over the top

Derek Pringle looks at the verbals that occur on the field and argues that the game should never be ‘chummy’ like golf ...

- Derek Pringle

To sledge or not to sledge has been a question that has vexed cricket and its protagonists ever since the game’s genesis on the downlands of southern England 450 years ago.

For some, and Ben Stokes is in this camp after his recent plea for umpires to be more tolerant of its use, sledging is an essential part of the game, provided it does not resort to racism and it is not over done.

But one man’s banter is another’s abuse and the International Cricket Council have instructed umpires to stamp on perpetrators quickly and surely.

Let’s be plain about this. Unless the standard of wit has risen in recent times, most sledging is an exchange of expletives delivered almost at random by bowlers to batsmen, who occasionally retort. Often, bowlers do it to pick a fight in order to gee themselves up, though it can also make batsmen more resolute, so picking your victim is a skill.

Occasionally, and this is the exception, there is some wit involved which is when sledging becomes banter. Nobody should mind the latter and I would even allow some of the former, but neither should be given any leeway by the umpires or authorities if they disrupt play for longer than it takes to say: “That was a jolly good shot, try it with your elbow a bit higher next time.”

To illustrate how puerile most sledging is, this is what Matt Prior complained to umpires about after Shane Warne began chipping away at him during a county match between Sussex and Hampshire back in 2005.

Prior had obviously been down the gym and increased the size of his pectoral muscles. Trying to disarm him, Warne kept calling him ‘Melons’ in reference to his bigger chest.