A brief history of sledging in cricket

Before we go through the history of sledging in cricket it's probably worth me pausing to explain what the term means to any readers of this blog who aren't cricket fans.

I can imagine a few out there would be left scratching their heads as to how a winter activity suddenly managed to find it's way into what is otherwise a summer sport!

Therefore let's start with a basic definition of the term sledging.

the act of one sports player insulting another during a game, in order to make them angry

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When 2 tribes go to war... Mitchell Johnson and Virat Kohli share some words during an Australia vs India Test source

Sledging is then for want of a better term, "trash talk" or to use the modern parlance "banter". It's designed to rile up your opponent and either break his concentration or otherwise lead him to make a mistake. In cricket it is usually the bowlers and/or fielders who will sledge the batsmen but on certain occasions as we'll see below the batsmen do like to give some back.

Where does the term sledging come from?

There are multiple accounts of how the term actually came into common usage within the game of cricket. Here are the main 3 that I am aware of

1. It's a corruption of the old English word slagj, which is also the stem word for slay. In other words the insults were so damaging that they could slay an opponent source

2. In the 1980s writing in his column in the Sydney Morning Herald, former Australian captain and a man who enjoyed more than the odd sledge, Ian Chappell, claims the term originated in the 1960s when an Australian domestic cricketer swore at an opponent in the presence of a woman (oh the humanity!). His actions were said to be "as subtle as a sledgehammer" and the term stuck

3. Others have attributed it to the American soul singer Percy Sledge and one particular incident of sledging that again occurred in Australia. The story goes that former NSW and Aussie bowler Grahame Corling's wife was having an affair with one of his team-mates and when Corling came into bat the opposition started singing the song When a Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge

When did sledging start in cricket?

Whichever of the above origin stories you believe it's worth noting that sledging has always been a part of cricket.

This Christmas I was given as a gift a book that contains the original laws of the game of cricket as they were first written down in 1744. The bulk of those rules remain the same today although as you'd imagine they have been tweaked and added to over the last 3 centuries. However, one of the rules caught my eye and in many ways inspired this post and it went like this

Laws for Wicket Keepers in the 1744 Code of Laws of Cricket

The Wicket Keeper shall stand at reasonable distance behind ye wicket and ye shall not move till ye Ball is out of ye Bowler's hand and shall not by any noise incommode ye Striker

While it doesn't specifically mention the term sledging, it certainly suggests that the earliest rule makers of the game of cricket were aware of the tactic that fielders and specifically wicket keepers employed to disrupt batsmen and felt that they needed to legislate against it.

I'm pretty sure the above would qualify under the 1744 laws as "incommoding ye Striker"

Of course, we didn't have the benefit of stump mic until relatively recently but there are enough reports that suggest that at least to some extent sledging has been a part and parcel of the game of cricket throughout the ages.

Indeed, W.G. Grace who is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of cricket through the Victorian era freely admitted that he used to play the game in a "noisy and boisterous" way with lots of "chaff" (a Victorian word for teasing). source

While Grace's approach to the game was in many ways unique and probably not in keeping with Victorian ideals of good manners and sportsmanship, sledging appears to have lived on at least to some extent into the early twentieth century.

Ranjitsinhji, ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar, a gentleman cricketer and Test player for England (1896 - 1902) as well as being widely considered as the godfather of Indian cricket once noted that a batsman could sometimes be "talked out" and was of the opinion that in circumstances where there was a little too much chat around the bat they were "quite within their rights in requesting a conversational fielder to hold their tongue".

In true Victorian style it all seems rather prim and proper although I'd imagine that in the heat of battle even the most well respected gent might let slip a few nasty comments.

Fast forward to the 1930s and one of the most controversial series in the history of cricket, the 1932/33 Ashes Series otherwise known as the 'Bodyline' series. Certainly by this point England's cricketers lead by their captain Douglas Jardine were happy to dispense with the niceties of days gone by in the ultimate pursuit of victory.

The use of intimidatory bowling obviously riled up a few of the Aussies and left us with this gem of a sledge from their captain Bill Woodfull. The story goes that Jardine was upset that some of the Australian fielders had referred to him as a "bastard" while he was batting and at the end of the day's play he went to the Australian dressing room to confront Woodfull about the incident.

Instead, Woodfull turned to his team-mates and asked

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However, it was the Australians of the 1970s that took sledging to a whole new level. The great Australian sides of that time included some hard nosed cricketers such as the Chappells, Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillie and Jeff Thompson who didn't take prisoners while out on the pitch. Their rivalry with the great West Indian team of the same era lead to plenty of heated battles with bat, ball and words and it was only a matter of time before the rest of the cricketing world caught up to the idea that sledging was a key component of any successful side.

There are those that would argue since then the act of sledging has gone too far in cricket and undoubtedly in certain circumstances where foul language and out and out abuse is aimed at the opposition then they have a point.

It was telling then that at the turn of the 21st century the MCC re-released the Code of Laws for the game of cricket (the same ones from 1744 mentioned above) and for the first time in history attempted to codify the mythical "Spirit of Cricket". Specifically the pre-ample of the laws of cricket now states

Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this Spirit causes injury to the game itself

Whether this has actually had any impact on the use of sledging is debatable. The idea of the "Spirit of Cricket" has been around for centuries and it didn't stop the increasing trend of sides trying to win at all costs.

At least from a sledging point of view, it's far more likely that the introduction of stump and player microphones as well as dozens of cameras around the ground covering every angle of the pitch has done more to cut down on swearing and abuse with players now knowing that their comments will be broadcast to millions across the globe.

Australian captain Michael Clarke was heavily criticised for swearing and physically threatening England's number 11 Jimmy Anderson

The Best Sledges in the History of Cricket

From my point of view, sledging is an important and acceptable part of the game of cricket. Anyone who has played the game knows that you can have a good technique and all the god given talent in the world but if you don't have the mental toughness to back it up then you won't succeed.

Sledging then is a means of testing that mental toughness or as former Aussie captain Steve Waugh said sledging is a form of "mental disintegration". In that sense it doesn't need to include course, threatening or violent language but it needs to hit the right notes at the right time to take a player out of their comfort zone.

Here are a few of the best all time sledges

The late great Fred Trueman was one of the finest bowlers England have ever produced and in true Yorkshireman fashion he was known to have a quick wit and sharp tongue.

Fred was fielding on the boundary one day as a new batsman came walking down the the pavilion steps and onto the pitch. As he did so the batsman paused to shut the little gate on the boundary's edge to which Trueman chirped

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The great Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne was never short of a word or two to opposition batsmen with his sledging even extending to his international team-mates.

During a domestic match, Warne was playing against his Aussie colleague Michael Slater who had a reputation for being a bit of a hot head. Knowing this, Warne and his team-mate Darren Berry started referring to Slater as "The Time-Bomb" and as they were shuffling around the field could be heard as follows

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Soon after "The Time-Bomb" duly exploded as Slater went for a big shot and holed out to a man on the boundary. As he was walking back to the dressing room Warne and Berry in unison shouted "KABOOM!"

For me this is a great example of how some of the best sledging in cricket is often not a direct conversation between fielders and batsmen. Instead it's very often done between fielders about the batsman and that in itself adds to the "mental disintegration".

Indeed, you don't have to be as clever as Warne and Berry in the example above and I've heard and taken part in sledging where fielders will simply talk about a batsman's technique or his shoes or the way he walks or the car he drives, etc, etc. The simple act of making someone listen to a conversation about themselves which they aren't invited to join is often enough to get under their skin.

I could go on for weeks giving examples of great sledges but here's one more modern example that was caught on the stump mic as Andrew Flintoff politely asks Tino Best not to smash any of the windows on the famous Lord's Pavilion. Tino duly tries to shatter one and runs straight past the ball

When sledging in cricket goes wrong

Of course sledging doesn't always work and more than that it sometimes backfires with spectacular consequences.

There are some players for who sledging has little impact and others who might actually enjoy or need a bit of chat around them to get the competitive juices flowing. Therefore, who to sledge in the opposition team and how to sledge them is an essential part of the preparation of any cricket side.

Here are some examples of when it's gone wrong...

Let's start again with Freddie Flintoff whose chirping to Tino Best about the windows may have been enough to get a guy of limited quality out but it back fired in a World Cup match against India when he tried the same thing against Yuvraj Singh who duly hit the next over for 6 x sixes.

When it comes to big hitting batsmen you might want to save your sledges until after you've got them out as Greg Thomas found when he was bowling to West Indies legend Viv Richards during a county game.

Having beaten Richards bat a couple of times, Thomas decided this was his moment to get at the West Indies captain about his trouble hitting the ball.

"It's red, round and weighs about five ounces, in case you were wondering." said Thomas

Next delivery Viv smashes the ball out of the ground

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As stated earlier, it's rarer for batsman to initiate a sledge against a bowler or fielder. Some might react to a direct confrontation while many others simply prefer to ignore it and stay in their "bubble" of concentration.

Our final example though shows that some batsmen like to give some verbals back and it also features Merv Hughes who in any article about sledging deserves special recognition with the portly Australian bowler being known as one of the games great sledgers.

In a heated argument between Hughes and Pakistan batsman Javid Miandad, the later suggested that 'Big Merv' who certainly didn't posses the physique of a true athlete looked like a "fat bus conductor".

A couple of overs later, Hughes had the ultimate revenge when he got Miandad out and as the batsman was walking off the ground he shouted

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All player images used under a creative commons license