SIR DONALD BRADMAN was once asked how he would have reacted if a member of his Australia team, which was no less competitive than is the case today, sledged the opposition. “I would give him a warning and then if he did it again I would not pick him again,” was the unequivocal response. This did not prevent Steve Waugh, one of his successors as captain, from advocating what he termed mental disintegration, snide comments in the hearing of the batsman, as a legitimate tactic. No thought was given to setting an example to young players and children.
This is why Waugh, as John Woodcock once wrote on these pages, has a stain against his name. One of his bowlers, Glenn McGrath, was reported constantly to the ECB by the first-class umpires during his time with Worcestershire, without any action being taken. Two of the best cricketers of the past decade have indulged in practices that sully the sport. Administrators the world over and the Professional Cricketers’ Association do little about it, nor seem to care about the consequent bad publicity and effect on impressionable minds.
This is not only to single out Australia, for other teams are almost as culpable. If the opening weeks of the season are anything to go by, the abuse of opponents at first-class level is becoming increasingly unfettered. Here are two examples other than the unedifying dispute between Shane Warne and Chris Adams. Recently, in a championship match in Cardiff, an appeal against Mark Wallace, the Glamorgan wicketkeeper, was turned down. Steve Kirby, who was fielding at mid-wicket for Gloucestershire and hence could not have known whether or not the ball had been edged outside off stump, came up to the crease and abused him so loudly that his words were audible to the parents and children dotted around the boundary.
The previous week, Simon Francis, the Somerset bowler, gesticulated at a departing Surrey batsman in a manner wholly contrary to how he was taught to play the game by Bob Stephenson, the former Derbyshire and Hampshire wicketkeeper who was his sports master at Twyford School.
The practice of sledging is so endemic that the cricketers turned commentators and writers think nothing of it. At Durham University’s Centre of Excellence, Graeme Fowler, the former England batsman who is of that same generation, encourages his charges to engage in banter with the opposition to disrupt their concentration. There is a theory that the perceived softness of county cricket can be addressed by abusing the opposition. It is insidious and puerile and above all takes no heed of the impact on young people. Who wants to pursue a career among playground bullies?
I write as the parent of a 14-year-old boy playing junior county cricket. Such attitudes all too easily filter down the age groups. There is a difference between encouragement and personal comment, but, as will be apparent when England play Australia this summer, the distinction is easily blurred. One or two of the coaches at young age levels do not make that differentiation. Of course the game should be competitive, but it does not — should not — have to be nasty, or it will lose its appeal to the players and public of tomorrow.
Cricket more than ever is in need of heroes. I know that I would not have admired mine — Alan Knott, Garry Sobers and Derek Underwood — if they had not been respectful towards their opponents.
In later life, Sobers told me that not once did he say anything offensive towards anyone on the field. His sportsmanship is why he is held in such esteem today. So what to do about lesser individuals and young cricketers who ape their seniors? Some umpires — John Hampshire gave Kirby a public ticking-off — and match referees, such as Clive Lloyd, possess an admirable authority. MCC is furthering the spirit of the game.
Above all, though, responsibility resides with administrators and captains, and the coaches of young cricketers. Several county boards are introducing their own code of conduct, emphasising that the highest standards of sportsmanship must be maintained, that there be no foul or abusive language used on or off the field and that there must be no gamesmanship deployed against the opposition. Let us hope that this has an effect.
Raj Maru, the Hampshire development officer, wrote his own code this year. “If boys do not abide by it, they are not selected for any of the age groups,” he said. “When I played first-class cricket, I was given lots of abuse, particularly from Pakistan. If the umpires could use yellow and red cards, that would sort out the problem. My advice would be not to get involved in slanging matches — let your bat or ball do the talking and maintain the highest standards of sportsmanship.”
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
Tom Tennant on the inane chat shows that, as a young batsman, he can really do without
THERE is a fine line between banter and sledging, which is worse at junior county level than it is in schools matches. As a batsman, I have become used to it and it can help my concentration, so long as the fielders keep quiet when the bowler is starting his run-up.
Wicketkeepers often still chat away when the bowler is coming in. Comments such as “you can only play one shot” don’t really put me off, although the remarks become more personal when opposition players recognise each other. One Essex fielder said to me as I was taking guard, “the first ball from our opening bowler will knock out your stumps”. I did not respond and just looked at him.
These comments soon stop once a batsman makes some runs. Boys are influenced by what they see on television and the umpires are so old that they don’t do anything about it. Coaches in county matches encourage chat among the fielders so as to back up the bowler, but there is a code of conduct we have signed up to, to prevent any abuse.
