Words make action louder

The not so gentlemen aspect of the gentlemen’s game involving the verbal exchange of words intended to distract opponents and present irrelevant cues that interfere with their concentration has been much debated about. Said to have originated in 1964 from Australian cricket this verbal exchange to insult opponents got its name when apparently a cricketer responded to an incident like a sledge hammer. This practice of verbal exchange went on to project the team from down under as the ugly Australians with in a decade’s time.

Sledging in cricket gains much more allure as the players in cricket are never in direct physical contact and the bat and ball do much of the talking and it today has evolved into a tactic weighing as much as a field set to a batsman. Sachins tendulkar’s confession on the tactic employed by the team deciding that he will have a go at McGrath says it all.

With even more than 4 leagues being played an year bringing together different players of different nations there is banter seen on field more often than not but The contests between Amir sohail and venkatesh Prasad ,Mitchell Johnson and jimmy Anderson, Sreesanth and Andre nel, Fred Flintoff and yuvraj singh  are not remembered for the words exchanged but the action that the words got out of them, these episodes involved some great replies in the ways ways one could including six sixes and a dance.

One of the world favourite umpire crooked finger Bowden says sledging is a evidence that the cricket from the players is coming hard and heated and is only a good sign until it is with in the boundaries and it is okay to have a bit of fun without hurting the multiple cultures of players and their backgrounds and it is fair to say words make the action louder.