February 24, 2015
The term “sledging” has been
synonymous with professional cricket for decades.
It is the art of trying to get
inside an opposition player’s head and put them off their game and has been as
commonplace as centuries and five-wicket hauls.
While many countries have adopted
the tactic, Australia is renowned for it. A few years ago a website ran a poll
of the all-time greatest sledges and 17 of the top 20 involved Australians.
Former captain Steve Waugh famously
described the approach, which started to become more prevalent during the 1970s
and 1980s, as “mental disintegration”.
During this phase in the game’s
history, cricket was becoming more professional and losing its tag as the
‘gentleman’s game’, yet sledging was still mostly used in good fun.
Former Australian fast bowler Merv
Hughes was a repeat offender. Once when bowling to Robin Smith, the England
batsman kept playing and missing deliveries from the big Australian.
A frustrated Hughes shouted out: “If
you turn the bat over, you’ll get the instructions mate.”
