To that most historic of all cricketing locations erm Dubai, where following a proposal by the Indian Board, the International Cricket Council has announced it’s going to take a ‘zero tolerance approach’ to sledging, Australian cricketers favourite winter sport.Hm, well fuck that.
“Sledging is not required in cricket. It's not good for the game." said BCCI’s secretary Niranjan Shah when originally making the proposal.
Pardon us if we beg to differ.
Now no-one’s condoning racism or hate speech or anything of the kind allegedly exchanged between Harbajan Singh and Andrew Symonds recently. However banter, provocation and the tactical use of the carefully crafted insult should be much a part of every cricketer’s armoury as any Yorker, slower ball or bouncer.
Besides, how could we deprive the world of such priceless gems as Rod Marsh’s “How your wife and my kids?” to which Ian Botham replied, “The wife’s fine, but the kids are retarded”
The equally splendid retort from Zimbabwean chicken Farmer Eddo Brandes when asked why he was so fucking fat by Australia’s Glen McGrath, “Because every time I fuck your wife, she gives me a biscuit.”
To deprive the greatest of games of such an important and it has to be said entertaining component, makes us die a little inside.
1 comment:
My favourite is from the great Merv Hughes:
'At Adelaide in 1991, Javed Miandad, for reasons best known to himself, called Hughes "a fat bus conductor". A few balls later Hughes dismissed him, loudly calling out "tickets please" as Miandad trudged past him on his way back to the pavilion.'
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