Is bullying allowed in cricket match?

[Sovik]

there are many incidents, some are funny and some are ugly. unfortunately they all are parts of the game now

[Hatebreed]

I think if there too much unnecessary talking in the field then the umpires should warn those players right away. If it persists, they should be fined and even banned for a game or two. Light sledging is fine, it spices things up between rival teams. But doing constantly to distract or intimidate players is not very sportsmanlike and should be discouraged by ICC.

[MohammedC]

I am sure you guys heard Kumar Sangakara yelling behind the stumps when BD plays
Srilanka in a odi "Test match cricket boys". Obviously he knows our boys were having difficulty playing Murali or Vaas, So he would keep saying it until some one looses his cool and goes for the big shot.................and you know what he is just been stumped or caught

[Farhad]

Originally Posted by BD4eva
Boucher is a freakin [edit]

Why the edit? The word I used (Dare I say it?) means - and Im quoting here - "An individual with an overinflated sense of worth". All this editing is really getting out of hand, next we'll be editing the word "Idiot". Or is that already being done? If it is, then for that as well

[AsifTheManRahman]

Can't take a poke while you're batting? Sledging's part of the game, and you gotta be mentally tough in all kinds of sports. You will probably be having a beer with the same dude in the evening anyways.

This is also where players from the subcontinent fall behind the others - they lack the kind of wit required to stand up to sledging. The funniest occurrence was when the Australian women were getting verbal on the Indian women, and later the Indian captain told the media about how the Aussies were being "rude and mean". Such a cry baby.

[layperson]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Can't take a poke while you're batting? Sledging's part of the game, and you gotta be mentally tough in all kinds of sports. You will probably be having a beer with the same dude in the evening anyways.

This is also where players from the subcontinent fall behind the others - they lack the kind of wit required to stand up to sledging. The funniest occurrence was when the Australian women were getting verbal on the Indian women, and later the Indian captain told the media about how the Aussies were being "rude and mean". Such a cry baby.

Completely agree. Sledging is part of the game now. You have to be tough to compete in the world today. If someone dishes out garbage at you make sure you have the guts to stand up and throw it back at them. Its all part of the game as long as sledging doesnt lead to fist fights I am ok with it. Hell even we sledged when we played cricket. Our sledging was also very very wittty and effective. Man those were days.

Btw ATMR, you said we used to play during games period our section vs your section. Did you guys get sledged by us karon I remember by class 8 we were actually pretty good at sledging the opposition.

[AsifTheManRahman]

i would think there would be a fair bit of sledging going on. i don't remember much though. most of the time, the games teachers would intervene, so sledgers wouldn't have had much luck anyways.

schooler baire khelte gele hoto ashol moja :p in fact nirman school crickete to public bat niye douran dito.

[Sumon77]

I like this one from Sangakara... quite funny...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFF9...related&search=

[AsifTheManRahman]

that was pretty lame, and exactly what i meant when i said "players from the subcontinent cannot sledge".

"expectaions of 42 million people..." - no no, South African's don't care all that much if their team loses a match or two.

[Hatebreed]

Originally Posted by Sumon77
I like this one from Sangakara... quite funny...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFF9...related&search=

hahahaha.. i thought that was more funny than intimidating. i would have started laughing if I was Shaun.

[layperson]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
i would think there would be a fair bit of sledging going on. i don't remember much though. most of the time, the games teachers would intervene, so sledgers wouldn't have had much luck anyways.

schooler baire khelte gele hoto ashol moja :p in fact nirman school crickete to public bat niye douran dito.

Hahahahah yeah just remembered Arif sir. Some famous quotes from the horses mouth:

1. Phibe isshtep back
2. Make a line banao.

LMAO

[damalChele]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Can't take a poke while you're batting? Sledging's part of the game, and you gotta be mentally tough in all kinds of sports. You will probably be having a beer with the same dude in the evening anyways.

This is also where players from the subcontinent fall behind the others - they lack the kind of wit required to stand up to sledging. The funniest occurrence was when the Australian women were getting verbal on the Indian women, and later the Indian captain told the media about how the Aussies were being "rude and mean". Such a cry baby.

A poke or two here and there from the bowler may be acceptable depending on the circumstances. It’s understandable when the bowler is frustrated especially fast bowlers. All those long run up and sweat in 30 degree heat only to see your bowl outside of the stadium. Exchanging dirty glances might spice up the contest but constant taunting from around and/or behind the wickets is an act of cowardliness. It’s sad and pathetic.

Since when did cricket become the battle ground of Mental Stamina between two teams? You have to be mentally prepared to cope with pressure in any sports but not to avoid being the victim of bullying.

Some of these players who sledge are roll models for young kids. Personally I find distasteful to watch them taunt and intimidate their opponents. If you are good enough you can win the match fair and square regardless. You dont have to resort to being some nasty f***k. And there I thought cricket is a game of gentle men.

[OZGOD]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Can't take a poke while you're batting? Sledging's part of the game, and you gotta be mentally tough in all kinds of sports. You will probably be having a beer with the same dude in the evening anyways.

This is also where players from the subcontinent fall behind the others - they lack the kind of wit required to stand up to sledging. The funniest occurrence was when the Australian women were getting verbal on the Indian women, and later the Indian captain told the media about how the Aussies were being "rude and mean". Such a cry baby.

This must be a cultural thing, to find sledging offensive. I didn't want to mention it until you mentioned it, Asif, but I've noticed it tends to be more upsetting to people from the subcontinent than it is to people from the UK, SA or NZ (or even the WI, where they're pretty used to trash talk). It must be tied up in the concept of respect and all that.

I personally don't mind being sledged, or sledging, as long as it's all a bit of fun and isn't personal. Things might get said in the heat of the moment. I've been sledged pretty badly both in district cricket in OZ, as well as playing rugby (where the sledging is heaps worse). As long as it's not personal, and as long as you can shake hands and have a beer at the end of the game I don't really see it as a problem. Obviously when the sledging gets to the level of personal abuse, or if there's genuine anger behind it, it's not on, but a bit of friendly banter is fine - we all engage in that when we play backyard cricket with our mates and we'll all still friends at the end of it. It's part of being mentally strong, to be able to ignore it. That said, I do have a pretty thick skin and am not easily offended by words - as they say, sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.

Also, some players thrive on it - Brian Lara used to try and provoke the fielders into sledging him when he came to the crease, because it would get him fired up. The OZ quickly learned not to sledge Lara, because that's what he wanted them to do. Sehwag is another who enjoys being sledged, as is Shahid Afridi.

On another note, it's funny how the OZ always get called out for being unsportsmanlike and ungentlemanly for the words they say on the field, yet nobody ever called the West Indian quicks unsportsmanlike even when they subjected tailenders to an unending barrage of bouncers in the 70 and 80s, or when Waqar Younis bowled two beamers at Andrew Symonds at WC 2003. It's just my opinion, but I feel there's a bit of hypocrisy here.

[Kabir]

Well yes, it's an art. But at the same time, you gotta agree that too much poking isn't fair. I would take a few comments easily, but not when it crosses a certain limit.

Anyway, here's something for you to watch from an Aussie tv programme. Funny how they appreciate Gavaskar here, but they do agree that sledging should have its own limits.

OZGOD: this isn't to point at Aussie team bro, it's just the media ppl's comments

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by damalChele
A poke or two here and there from the bowler may be acceptable depending on the circumstances. It’s understandable when the bowler is frustrated especially fast bowlers. All those long run up and sweat in 30 degree heat only to see your bowl outside of the stadium. Exchanging dirty glances might spice up the contest but constant taunting from around and/or behind the wickets is an act of cowardliness. It’s sad and pathetic.

Since when did cricket become the battle ground of Mental Stamina between two teams? You have to be mentally prepared to cope with pressure in any sports but not to avoid being the victim of bullying.

Some of these players who sledge are roll models for young kids. Personally I find distasteful to watch them taunt and intimidate their opponents. If you are good enough you can win the match fair and square regardless. You dont have to resort to being some nasty f***k. And there I thought cricket is a game of gentle men.

i see what you're saying about these people being role models, but then again, what makes you think an average Tom or Dick or Harry wouldn't resort to sledging albeit growing up in a perfect world?

besides, if taunting is all that is needed to get someone out, then that someone probably doesn't deserve to play cricket at the top level. what is sad and pathetic is someone losing his head and playing a rash shot as a result of a few taunts and verbal attacks. if your opponent expects you to crumble under their words, then just hit back at them with your own words and shut them up, or don't listen to them and keep on playing your game.

saying that cricket is a gentleman's game is synonymous to being in the 1800's. come on, it's just a sport, like any other. you don't have british zamidars playing the game as a hobby anymore. it's what it is - a sport, like any other. i'm sure a lot of people would rather not have cricket as a gentleman's game, because then it would really take a lot of the fun off it. you would have people coming in in their best clothes, reading a newspaper and lazily clapping after every boundary from the stands, a lot like they do at Lord's, and other venues in England.

edit: besides, officials do intervene when things get out of hand, so i don't see why we should have a problem with taunting and words being exchanged when the people in charge don't.

[damalChele]

Asif Bhai sometimes it really gets out of hand. Players take it too far as someone mentioned earlier. Glenn McGrath was being sledged about his sick wife. Thats sick. How can you not react to something like this? Hard to ignore and play your game. On the other hand, reacting to such taunt would mean that you bring yourself down to their level. My question is why should there be such taunts in the first place? This sledging even leads to racism when the whole world is trying to kick racism out of football and all the other sports. Thats a real shame for the cricket lovers.

I found this click..very sad!
Gibbs and Clarke are well known racist. I only discovered it recently.



It's a sport like any other but I dont hear much about sledging in other sports apart from rugby and football where appropriate actions are there. Fans get banned from stadium, players get fined and banned for being racist and so on. In cricket however muppet umpires tend to ignore it. Authorities don't do much because they are probably thinking of the financial aspects.

[AsifTheManRahman]

well, to be brutally honest, the pakistani crowd weren't behaving either in that gibbs incident. not that it makes it legal for gibbs to make those comments, but if we want to eliminate racism from cricket, then maybe fans should take on some of the responsibilities as well. khali playerderke dosh diye to labh nai, karon ek haate to r tali baje na.

but yes, gibbs was punished for that incident, so there is a system in place to penalize those guilty of crossing the limit.

[Hatebreed]

What Gibbs did wasn't right, but he did the right thing by not calling them Pakis or anything racist like that, which would have really tarnished his image.

[vegeta08]

the point of doin this is to put the batsmen off and sometimes it back fires . cricket is a game for the mentally tough guys, wu shuld b so concentrated that it shuld not effect them! its all in the game if u let it get to u then u shouldnt b playing. take kevin pieterson! they give him a hard time everytime he gets out there! wat does he do?? he goes out there and proves a point! also kallis! hes like a mental brick! sledging mainly effects the lower order batsmen because they arent as focused as the top porder

[cricket_king]

Sledging should really be banned. You should not be allowed to exchange any words with your opposition during a match unless it's for obvious reasons.

[uss01]

I have a feeling that Munaf Patel might have said something racist to Tamim, I dunno, what you guys think? I hope I am wrong, but it just seemed like he said something racist or poked fun of Bangladeshis or Bengalis. Because he was going on and on and on, pretty much yelling at Tamim. It was very arrogant.

[billah]

Here's the summary of ICC rule on bullying:

"Countries allowed to do whatever the hell they want on the field:
Australia
England
South Africa

If you are curious about the status of your country's rights to unsportsman like behavior on and off the field, check with the above list. If your country name does not appear on the list, most likely you are not allowed.

The End."

[OZGOD]

Originally Posted by billah
Here's the summary of ICC rule on bullying:

"Countries allowed to do whatever the hell they want on the field:
Australia
England
South Africa

If you are curious about the status of your country's rights to unsportsman like behavior on and off the field, check with the above list. If your country name does not appear on the list, most likely you are not allowed.

The End."

You forgot to put an addendum: *if the sledging is done in a language other than English (eg. Hindi, Urdu, etc) then nobody even bothers to report it...

[RazabQ]

Ozfan, yes south asian culture does put more of a premium on respecting elders I suppose. I know that in matches where I play I wouldn't sledge someone who's not near my age group or someone who was really young (unless he starts it).

Having said that, I'm ok with witty comments here and there, but what Boucher was doing - that's for me is cowardly. Especially when you've got close in fielders to create a claustrophobic atmosphere.

Some of my favorites (ones I've come up with):

"Umpire please tell maradona, we play this game with the bat and not the legs" to a guy who'd been padding up all morning.
"Captain, should I give him [batter] a quarter so he can buy a clue" to a dude who'd played and missed 2 overs in a row.
"Damn guys, I can smell yer breakfast - rotten eggs were apparently involved" - to close-in fielders who were trying to hustle up a hattrick for their bowler.
"yo barishnokov, you wanna play or what?" to a guy who'd been consistently backing away ....