The Cricket Thread

[Captainron]

And I continue to think that it is high time that cricketers started behaving like grown men rather than adolescent schoolboys.

And I also played a lot of cricket until I was 50, but I never indulged in any sledging and any aimed at me was water off a duck's back.

Its pathetic! A case of " Talking the talk but not walking the walk".

Just like kids.

So it never affected you so you didn't take part. Fair enough.

Plenty of the greats indulged in sledging and used it to their advantage. Batting is a mental thing. Concentration. Concentration. Concentration. Break that and you have a sniff. I'd happily go in for that to help get a wicket.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

So it never affected you so you didn't take part. Fair enough.

Plenty of the greats indulged in sledging and used it to their advantage. Batting is a mental thing. Concentration. Concentration. Concentration. Break that and you have a sniff. I'd happily go in for that to help get a wicket.

And how often has it ever worked at the top level?

The grat Aussie sides were great because of their playing ability not because they were a bunch of tiresome gobby kids.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Sledging is an apendage waving contest.

The ones I came across who did it, bowlers only really, were absolute door handles. Only played with one guy on my team who would do it. We would tell him to shut up, he was an embarrassment. That tended to take the wind out of his sledge.

 

[Captainron]

And how often has it ever worked at the top level?

The grat Aussie sides were great because of their playing ability not because they were a bunch of tiresome gobby kids.

It worked enough for them to be good at it and specifically use it as a tool.

It works lots more at club level though.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

It worked enough for them to be good at it and specifically use it as a tool.

It works lots more at club level though.

Not in my experience.

In all my years of playing and watching club cricket I have never seen a batsman loose his wicket who wouldn't have done without the rattle.

Particularly pathetic when there is some implied physical threat or attempt to elicit one when everyone knows it can't be backed up.

 

[sunshine]

Distracting a batsman/bowler or fielder through chat is part of the game. The Aussies were best at it for ages and "mental disintegration" was part of the plan. Did they care that no one liked them? No! They won all the time and that is what the game is really about at that level.

Only when there was physical cheating did they really take a look at the culture they had in the team at the time. The sandpaper thing was very different to the sledging they were doing (badly) but it all got looked at as culture and they wanted to be liked because they weren't winning everything.

Having played a lot of cricket in my time, I have sledged and been sledged loads. Some of it was funny as hell. Some not so funny. Some of it was personal as hell. Language was both eloquent and coarse. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. And you git to know who it worked on pretty quickly. Once you had a target, you went for it. And it would be the same every time you played that guy. In international cricket there are plenty of players who don't/didn't get verbals because it doesn't work on them and it just made things worse.

I think people are over reacting

Being mentally tough, and insulting the opposition, are not the same thing. Cricketers using offensive language to abuse and insult their opponent just brings the game into disrepute in my opinion.

A good sledge is not abusive, but disrupts the concentration / puts doubt into the mind of your opponent. The best sledges are just witty and not rude at all e.g. Flintoff's "mind the windows Tino".

 

[Captainron]

Being mentally tough, and insulting the opposition, are not the same thing. Cricketers using offensive language to abuse and insult their opponent just brings the game into disrepute in my opinion.

A good sledge is not abusive, but disrupts the concentration / puts doubt into the mind of your opponent. The best sledges are just witty and not rude at all e.g. Flintoff's "mind the windows Tino".

I’d didn’t say it had to contain swearing. I just said that it wasn’t a problem if it did.

The Brandes/McGrath one is the best ever and it contained the F word.

 

[sunshine]

I’d didn’t say it had to contain swearing. I just said that it wasn’t a problem if it did.

The Brandes/McGrath one is the best ever and it contained the F word.

I agree, don't see much wrong with swearing until you are in a stump microphone environment. I think that abusing the opponent is poor.

 

[Mudball]

Whenever/wherever i have played.. there is always chatter around the bat.. keeper or bowler.. or keeper shouting things to his team.. I used to play for my company in the local league and we were very bad at sledging.. but each other. Who needs the other team when you can shout at your keeper for being fat and not able to keep.

The witty ones and the ones that break concentration have been part of the game.. personal has no place.. Some of the memorable ones include Shane Warne talking about eating biscuits..

A couple of years ago, i was watching my son play an U9 game.. the opposition boys kept shouting - including when the bowler was about to deliver. Piss poor behaviour. Coach did not stop it. It took one of their parents to step in and ask them to calm down. Unfortunately, sometimes coaches go for 'win at all cost' mentality at grassroot sports - cricket, footy, all the same... This sets it up for the kids.

 

[Mudball]

I’d didn’t say it had to contain swearing. I just said that it wasn’t a problem if it did.

The Brandes/McGrath one is the best ever and it contained the F word.

It can all go horribly wrong if you get too carried away.. here is a gem from an India/Pak game..

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1967752249913125

 

[Piece]

Not in my experience.

In all my years of playing and watching club cricket I have never seen a batsman loose his wicket who wouldn't have done without the rattle.

Particularly pathetic when there is some implied physical threat or attempt to elicit one when everyone knows it can't be backed up.

In my league career, I've seen a few batsman get themselves out after a period of sledging. I've also seen batsman dig in and play better. Same for bowlers.

Sledging is ok by me as long as it doesn't cross the line. e.g. direct personal insults or physical.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

In my league career, I've seen a few batsman get themselves out after a period of sledging. I've also seen batsman dig in and play better. Same for bowlers.

Sledging is ok by me as long as it doesn't cross the line. e.g. direct personal insults or physical.

I have always considered it pointless.

A flaky batsman will be got out with pressure applied by good bowling, not the puerile twaddle that weekend warriors come out with.

And the great Australian team of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting got there thanks to having McGrath and Warne as well as a very good top 5.

I wonder just how much sledging is done to relieve pressure on the fielding side rather than apply it to the batsmen.

 

[fundy]

I have always considered it pointless.

A flaky batsman will be got out with pressure applied by good bowling, not the puerile twaddle that weekend warriors come out with.

And the great Australian team of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting got there thanks to having McGrath and Warne as well as a very good top 5.

I wonder just how much sledging is done to relieve pressure on the fielding side rather than apply it to the batsmen.

Most of its done to relieve the boredom of fielding for that long and running out of things to natter about isnt?

 

[Captainron]

Most of its done to relieve the boredom of fielding for that long and running out of things to natter about isnt?

That too. Unlimited games in South Africa. Could have some long days in the field in some severe heat. I bowled 21 overs at Chatsworth Oval one day. We were out there for about 80 overs. Boredom is a killer.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Most of its done to relieve the boredom of fielding for that long and running out of things to natter about isnt?

I did wonder just how bored the ex-firstclass bowler must have been to spend several overs sledging a barely 15 year old.

And then moan to the umpires when the batsman responded!

 

[Captainron]

I did wonder just how bored the ex-firstclass bowler must have been to spend several overs sledging a barely 15 year old.

And then moan to the umpires when the batsman responded!

Where was this?

 

[fundy]

Where was this?

mainly from the Aussie and Saffer overseas pros when I opened the batting at 15/16 in the Herts league lol

different pro, same gags every week lol

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Where was this?

Leicestershire Premier League.

 

[funkycoldmedina]

Leicestershire Premier League.

I played with a lad when I was at uni who was Ivanhoe in that league. Hell of a batsmen

 

[Deleted member 18588]

I played with a lad when I was at uni who was Ivanhoe in that league. Hell of a batsmen

My younger son, now 36, still plays there. The other son now lives overseas but he joined Ivanhoe as a 14 year old and stayed until he went to university.

Who was your uni friend?