Australia’s men in white are the World Cup winners and holders of the Ashes – but they are also the acknowledged world champions of sledging, and the country’s political elite has had enough.

Michael Jeffery, the Governor-General, was backed by Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, after criticising one of the country’s sporting institutions yesterday. He said that sledging – the verbal abuse of an opponent – was “totally un-Australian”.

Major-General Jeffery said that he was concerned about a lack of sportsmanship and courtesy. “I think there have been times in recent years where it’s obvious that things [have deteriorated],” Major-General Jeffery said. “Questioning umpires’ decisions, not walking, sledging – which I’m totally against in a vicious sense.”

The Queen’s representative in Australia made the comments at the conclusion of an incendiary Test series against India, in which each side accused the other of making offensive remarks. The row culminated in one of the game’s darkest crises, with India threatening on several occasions to quit the series after their spin bowler Harbhajan Singh was accused of racial abuse, for which he was cleared this week on appeal.

Australia emerged with a 2-1 series victory in Adelaide this week but with its reputation tarnished. Ricky Pon-ting, the captain, and his team refused to shake hands with the Indian players after winning the Sydney Test, and Andrew Symonds, a top-order batsman, stayed at the crease even though he admitted to knowing that he had edged a ball to the wicketkeeper.

Major-General Jeffery said that the Sydney Test had been a “wake-up call”. “While we should be playing the game tough and hard . . . I think there’s also a need to really take care of the fundamental courtesies and good manners,” he said.

His comments come days after Ian Chappell, an Australian Test captain of the Seventies, said that there could be “fisticuffs” if sledging was not curtailed. “I’ve been contending for at least a decade that the more you allow to be said on a cricket field, the more likelihood that someone will get personal. If it gets personal then trouble erupts,” he said.

Mr Rudd called on the Australian team to watch its step. “It’s great if we could see more opportunities for greater and greater civility to permeate the veins of the game,” he said.

Creasing up

— The Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh to Ian Botham: “So how’s your wife and my kids?”

— An Australian fan to the English spinner Phil Tufnell: “Tufnell! Can I borrow your brain? I’m building an idiot.”

— In the 1991 Adelaide Test, Javed Miandad, of Pakistan, called the Australian Merv Hughes a fat bus conductor. A few balls later Hughes dismissed Miandad and called out: “Tickets, please”

— The South African player Daryll Cullinan, on his way to the wicket, told the Australian Shane Warne that he had been waiting two years for another chance to humiliate him. “Looks like you spent it eating,” said Warne

Source: Times archive