Sledging in Cricket

Sledging has always been a part of cricket, and Australia and England have been pioneers in this field.

But of late with ICC coming into action, there are more stringent punishments under ICC Code of Conduct for sledging and physical intimidation but the irony is that most of the times the players from sub-continent are made target for punishment.

In this recent incident of Gambhir and Watson, where Gambhir was provoked by Watson (God knows what he said) and Gambhir in return elbowed him in the midriff. Definitely Gambhir is guilty of elbowing Watson but what about Watson? Why did he hurl some abuses in the first place?  What did the Match Referee see?

Watson was only levied 10% of his match fee whereas Gautam Gambhir has been fined for one match—where stands the logic?

Not only that but in the past also players from the sub-continent have always got a raw deal from the match referees and this incident is not an exception.

Take the case of Symonds, who got away without any fine despite provoking Harbhajan for no reason, and why has Cricket Australia left him from the present series because of his misconduct when they were on Bangladesh tour.  Just think, how much the Australian team must have been troubled with Symonds that they thought of teaching him a lesson by handing him over this punishment.

What a furor was created in Symonds-Harbhajan case.  A committee was set up, then a retired Judge heard the case and finally Harbhajan was cleared of charges.  I don't think it was such a big issue to draw so much of attention.

Australia coach Tom Moody himself said that he feels there is more to the "gone fishing" story than meets the eye.

The Australians have been the pioneers of on-field sledging and abusing, and they have brought the game to disrepute the most. And yet hardly any action has ever been taken against its players. The likes of Warne, McGrath, Symonds, and Ponting should have been heavily punished long time back and perhaps we would not have come to this stage.

Even now if sledging is not controlled or this discrimination is dealt with appropriately, there will be more serious incidents in the future.