Verbally abusing someone shows the attacker's lack of upbringing and civility.[/quot]
That's very judgmental and I think this may have to do with different cultures. In England, Australia, NZ... swearing is a very liberal thing. You hear words like m*th*rf*ck*r a lot and they're not intented to insult, they're just very common liberal words. People in Yorkshire, in my experience, can't go ten seconds without swearing. Now I don't swear myself, but I'm never offended by it because it's part of my culture and I'm used to it. So if Andrew Symonds says "lets get these m*th*rf*ck*rs out." I'm not offended. In a country where swearing isn't common, it might offend some.
Besides, just who deciedes what is acceptable verbal abuse ? To some, making snide comments about their wives/mothers/children is far bigger offence than threatening to shove an AK-47 up their poopchute.
Find more than two scenarios where wives or children were involved. I can think of one with Glenn McGrath. Many others have been reported and found to be false. In fact there was a mtyh-buster thread on false slanders here at CW a few weeks ago where many supposed sledges never actually occured. And I want sources that talk about wives/children etc, not just mtyhs or "oh it just happens."
And sledging today isnt little annoying things - atleast, not from the Aussies. Its profanity laced personal attack which would earn each and every one of them a black eye in almost anywhere else.
Yeah there's plenty of profanity, which is quite common in England, Oz and NZ. Personal attack? Give me some credible examples. The most personal I know of was Shane Warne having a go at Gary Kirstin for hitting on some critickers wives. And to be honest, they were actually quite funny.
Comments about mothers may be common and jabs about your mothers are quite common in my culture and are said in good humour. For example, "yo mammas so fat" jokes etc. Nobody takes them personally.
Regardless, the point remains - if you resort to sledging, it shows your cricketing skills are not adequate.
You can sledge all you like, but it's only skill that's gonna win you a game.
willful and open antagonism should be curtailed and if chappelli thinks sledging is an acceptable means of testing somene's mental strength, then i am gonna advocate for a Andres Escobar-esque situation to test someone's mental strength even furthre - perform or die. Please tell me where you draw the line.
I draw the line when issues such a race are involved. To this day I've never heard racism as a sledge. Guys like Darren Lehman who have said racist comments didn't use them as sledges. I draw the line when sledges lead to tempers boiling over, and this has happened with Glenn McGrath. To his credit, an umpire stepped in and told McGrath to calm down. Understand that most sledges are just comments that come in inbetween shots and if they put you off, seriously there's something wrong. If you can't handle a sledge, you can't handle anything else. And you know what? I have never heard a cricketer say he went out because a sledge annoyed him. What does that say about him if he does?
Oh I went out because a cricketer said I was another left hander who couldn't bat! How would this cricketer handle public criticisms of his batting then? It's a tes of character, but all professional crickets have character. Most aren't afriad to get hit with a ball. Cricket's a big boys game where you can get hit, you dive, you take on heat from bowlers.
My definition of a comment that is unacceptable is something that goes beyond other pressures of the game. Most sledges, though insulting, don't exceed the difficulty or pressure they'll be under from the cricketers tactics. If they were talking in the middle of a shot that's another thing, they're going beyond the pressure batsman are already under.
But if you can't handle a little jab, you can't handle anything else.
Commenting about mothers, family, nationality, etc. is definately not little jabs. And that is the bulk of the sledging today.
And batsmen go out because of them? Didn't anybody tell you about sticks and stones when you were a kid? If these things put you off then what are you doing facing a 150 mile ball from Brett Lee.
Do you honestly believe that with all the difficulty one has in batting that sledging is their biggest problem. It's the least of their problems. And I have never heard one cricket say he went out to a sledge, or he couldn't bat because of a sledge. It's such a small part of the bigger picture. When your batting, you don't worry about anything else.
A better argument for you would be to say that sledging is pointless, which I somewhat agree with, because it doesn't put batters off. Tony Grieg said it never put him off and he got the worst of it. Warne was at his worst to Andrew Strauss, yet he made centuries.
Their just comments and at worst, stick and stones brother. Their such a small part of the bigger picture of the pressure of cricket. I'd rather have somebody make a little taunt toward me than face a Brett Lee delivery. And if both were happening, there's only one I'd be thinking of.
