Ashes sledging

[greg]

Both sides have got serious ammo to use if they want to with Thorpe's pending retirement and Warne's marriage breakup plus the regular sort like Tresco being Gillespie's bunny,could make for a very interesting couple of months.

[Zainub]

I would hate to see it get too personal.

[greg]

I would too but if you think you could put Warne off by messing with his head you would,i seem to remember former Aussie players before the last ashes tour saying that Waugh and co would have a field day winding up Thorpe about his marriage break-up (he pulled out of tour eventually) so if it's good for them then it's good for everyone else.

[Occasional Fan]

Disagree completely, Greg. Two wrongs don't make a right. There's no call for personal comment on the cricket field.

[Rachael]

Surely the point of the game of cricket is (as in all sport) for individuals / teams to test themselves against the best of the rest and see if they match up / surpass others: seeking to impair the performance of others is therefore self defeating - as you end up knowing only how you measure up against the impaired performance of those others!

Sure... you aim to win... but that's not the same as aiming to make others lose: resorting to gamesmanship is the thin end of a wedge that ends with scandals like the one where Tonya Harding asked her husband to hire an attacker to take a pipe to Nancy Kerrigan’s knee in order to put her leading rival out of the women's figure skating competition at the 1994 Winter olympics at Lillehammer.

The scale of the offence might be lesser.. but do we excuse fraud because it's a lesser crime than murder?

[Seamer]

Agree totally OF. If you want to make a comment within earshot of the batsman in regards to some technical deficiency - that is gamesmanship. But to make personal comments such as Warne's breakup is personal and wrong, and i believe the entire English team has too much class to lower themselves to that level anyway.

[Lemming]

I agree with Occassional Fan. Sledging is part of the game, but only when it involves non-personal stuff. I don't see a problem with the Aussies pointing out Thorpe is about to retire, or Trescothick looks nervous, or the last shot was poor, or whatever, so long as no touchy subjects are brought up. If it was allowed to happen that England could pick at Warne's divorce what would be next? Would it be acceptable sledging to comment on a player's sick relative for example? Or comment on media allegations of unlawful activites? (These are purely examples for illustrative reasons, I know of no occurances in the current squads) No, of course not! Sledging - as I said - is part of the game, but only if it is sort of friendly and in good spirit! Justin Langer spending the whole of Vaughan's innings calling him a "****ing cheat" is not good spirit, for example. Flintoff telling Tino Best to "watch the winders (windows), Tino" when he goes for a massive hit and misses brings a smile to everyones face.

[Occasional Fan]

Actually, finding the line is a difficult thing to do. Without in any way wanting to withdraw from my position as stated above, I confess to having had a smile at the following exchange (maybe it is an apocryphal tale). It was the comeback that got the laugh, and when I heard it it was attributed to Shane Warne.

Unknown sledger: "Warnie - why are you so bloody fat?"
Warne: "'Cos every time I **** your missus she gives me a biscuit."

[Andy Mellon]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

Unknown sledger: "Warnie - why are you so bloody fat?"
Warne: "'Cos every time I **** your missus she gives me a biscuit."

I believe this was actually an exchange between Glenn McGrath and Eddo Brandes

Brandes - why are you so bloody fat etc...

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

Unknown sledger: "Warnie - why are you so bloody fat?"
Warne: "'Cos every time I **** your missus she gives me a biscuit."

I've heard that before. It has to be the perfect comeback in that situation and I'm looking to put on weight in order to use it in the future!