The ongoing India vs Australia Border-Gavaskar test series has seen both teams indulge in quite a bit of sledging. While some find it funny and take it as good-humoured taunting, many others feel like the present lot of cricketers are crossing the fine line between sledging and insulting.
Cricket, which was once known as the gentleman's game, seems to have turned into an aggressive battlefield where sledging is becoming a widely accepted norm. Sledging seeped into the psyche of cricketers as shorter-format games like the One-Day Internationals and Twenty20s demanded more of them within shorter time limits, and turned them aggressive.
The Australian cricket team of 1974 were labelled 'ugly Australians' because of their aggression both with bat-and-ball and their tongues. Famed Australian fast-bowler Merv Hughes is still regarded as the player who shot off the most brutal sledges.
Since then, in the four decades that followed, subcontinental cricketers too picked up verbal weapons. Rather than letting their skill with the bat and ball do the talking for them, players began taking it upon themselves to do a lot of the talking. There are several infamous incidents that come to mind, when one talks about Team India alone.
For example, Harbhajan Singh's 'monkey' comment aimed at Andrew Symonds is something nobody can forget, especially since the actual word was in Hindi and Symonds misinterpreted it as monkey since they both sounded similar (we'll let you do the guess work). Parthiv Patel, the sweet-faced cricketer, was also involved in such an incident with Australian great Steve Waugh.
The then wicket-keeper commented on how Waugh would be bowled out soon, and the Aussie promptly responded with: "Respect me, for when I made my debut, you were still in your nappies." Even Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar was not spared.
In a match against Pakistan, during his younger days, he was slamming Mustaq Ahmed for boundaries. That's when senior Pakistani player Abdul Qadir taunted Sachin to stop hitting 'kids' for boundaries, and to try hitting Qadir's deliveries instead. Tendulkar, however, took the high road and let his bat do the talking as he smashed Qadir for back-to-back sixers.
Seeing as how sledging has become an integral part of cricket, it is no wonder that the ongoing Border-Gavaskar test series saw its fair share of sledging within the first three test matches itself. Before the fourth test begins tomorrow, lets take a look at the most controversial sledges in the series so far:
1. Steve Smith's sudden show of team spirit during the DRS referral Australian captain Steve Smith has had his share of fights and arguments on-field with the opposition players. However, for some reason, this series seems to have had an abundance of sledging incidents involving Smith.
The most was condemned incident was when Smith was out LBW for 28 during Australia's innings in the second test. Umesh Yadav was the bowler and non-striker Peter Handscomb joined Smith to discuss whether they should review the decision, but it soon became clear that they wanted the opinion of their dressing room, which is against the rules. Denied the review, Smith was declared out. Not willing to walk off the field with grace, he engaged in a war of words with Virat Kohli, before heading back to the dressing room. All hell broke loose after that, and Smith's behaviour did not go down well with anyone. Indian bowler R Ashwin even went on record to call Smith's behaviour similar to an Under-10 match.
2. Ishant Sharma's game face Instagram celebrity Kim Kardashian needs to up her game, because this is literally how you break the internet. Who even knew that Ishant's reply to Steve Smith's facial taunt would give us the meme of the year? The face went viral as Star Sports even had a special segment wherein they made several commentators attempt the face, and Ishant Sharma was propelled to overnight fame in meme-land.
3. A game of tit-for-tat between David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Virat Kohli During the third test match, Virat Kohli suffered a nasty shoulder injury while trying to stop a boundary. He made a clutching gesture while in pain, which was picked up by Glenn Maxwell and David Warner, who imitated the same gesture while fielding when Kohli was on strike. However, Kohli has never been one known to take a submissive stance, and the Indian captain made a mockery of Warner's imitation when Warner was out in the next innings.
4. When Virat Kohli passed comments on Matt Renshaw's unfortunate call of nature During the first test match, young Australian batsman Matt Renshaw had to stop play to make a quick trip to the toilet. Though the incident did appear funny, Kohli looked to take the joke further in the second test. When Matt Renshaw was out by Ravindra Jadeja after a gritty knock of 60 runs, Virat Kohli went over to Matt and told him that he “should head back to the toilet”. One might even wonder as to when the game changed from cricket to taunting.
5. When Wriddhiman Saha reached for the wrong ball/ When Wriddhiman Saha and Steve Smith got tangled During the third test, the atmosphere was very tense as Steve Smith needed to be dismissed soon. The entire team and fans were worried, but then Saha's antics lightened the mood. They say desperate times call for desperate measures, and Saha proved this. As Steve Smith was batting, he hit a Ravindra Jadeja delivery in a manner that became an inside-edge, and the ball got stuck between his pads. Technically, a batsman can still be out if the wicket-keeper can catch the ball before it hits the ground. Determined to do just that, Saha reached down into Smith's pads to take the ball out, while a visibly miffed Smith tried to stop him.
This resulted in both of them lying in a tangled mess on the ground with Saha making an appeal for a wicket. The scenario had every onlooker burst into laughter, and even umpire Ian Gould could not resist laughing at that. With the fourth test ready to start tomorrow, stay tuned for more action.