Sledging is the practice in cricket of insulting opponents to break their concentration and cause them to make mistakes. The recent India's tour of Australia was marred by sledging controversies among others. But sledging has been a part of the game for a long time that its a huge task to completely weed it out of the game. Here are some of the legendary sledges(some good ones some are censored...hope it does not offend the readers)
Rod Marsh & Ian Botham: When Botham took guard in an Ashes match, Marsh welcomed him to the wicket with the immortal words: "So how's your wife & my kids?"
Daryll Cullinan & Shane Warne: As Cullinan was on his way to the wicket, Warne told him he had been waiting 2 years for another chance to humiliate him. "Looks like you spent it eating," Cullinan retorted.
Robin Smith & Merv Hughes: During 1989 Lords Test Hughes said to Smith after he played & missed:"You can't f**king bat". Smith to Hughes after he smacked him to the boundary: "Hey Merv, we make a fine pair. I can't f**king bat & you can't f**king bowl."
Merv Hughes & Javed Miandad: During 1991 Adelaide Test, Javed called Merv a fat bus conductor. A few balls later Merv dismissed Javed: "Tickets please", Merv called out as he ran past the departing batsman.
Merv Hughes & Viv Richards: During a test match in the West Indies, Hughes didn't say a word to Viv, but continued to stare at him after deliveries. "This is my island, my culture. Don't you be staring at me. In my culture we just bowl." Merv didn't reply, but after he dismissed him he announced to the batsman: "In my culture we just say f**k *ff."
You can't forget Ian Healy's legendary comment which was picked up by the Channel 9 microphones when Arjuna Ranatunga called for a runner on a particularly hot night during a one dayer in Sydney... "You don't get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat c**t!!!"
James Ormond had just come out to bat on an ashes tour and was greeted by Mark Waugh....... MW : "F*ck me, look who it is. Mate, what are you doing out here, there's no way you're good enough to play for England" JO : "Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my family"
Malcolm Marshall was bowling to David Boon who had played and missed a couple of times. Marshall : "Now David, Are you going to get out now or am I going to have to bowl around the wicket and kill you?"
Fred Trueman who when faced with two poor decisions from the umpire, (leg before decision and caught behind to an obvious knick) clean bowled his opponent with his next delivery and turned to the umpire and uttered, “That’s got to be bloody close, hasn’t it?”
This involves Steve Waugh and Parthiv Patel.....Steve Waugh...Last Test...comes up to bat...PArthiv-"so this is your last test...show us some of that famous sledging of yours." Steve-"Respect Me...For when i made my test debut You were still in your nappies"
This is the one and only javed miandad vs dilip doshi...javed bhai at the crease, doshi bowling...the players' hotel was quite near the stadium...
javed: "arre doshi apna room number to bataa"
nothing from doshi
next ball, javed asks again...still nothing when the over ends..."arre ab to over khatam ho gaya, ab to bataa de"
doshi finally relents.."216" (or watever)
Miandad - "agle over mein ball wahin maaroonga"
Ravi shastri v/s the aussie 12th man (don't remember who, and don't want to slander anyone ) shastri hits it to this guy and looks for a single...this guy gets the ball in and says "if you leave the crease i'll break your head"
shastri: "if you could bat as well as you can talk you wouldn't be the 12th man"
Ricky Ponting & Shaun Pollock: After going past the outside edge with a couple of deliveries, Pollock told Ponting: "It's red, round & weighs about 5 ounces." Unfortunately for Pollock, the next ball was hammered out of the ground.
Ponting to Pollock: "you know what it looks like, now go find it."
Freddie Flintoff to Tino Best: After playing numerous defensive shots against Ashley Giles Flintof muttered to Best "Mind the windows Tino". Next ball Tino charged down the track and got stumped.
Merv was bowling to Hansie Cronje during a tour game in South Africa. It was an especially flat wicket and Cronje was hitting Hughes for fours and sixes all over the place.
After the umpteenth boundary, Hughes headed down the pitch, stood near Cronje, let out a fart and said: "Try hitting that for six." It was five minutes before the guffawing stopped and play could resume.
Porky Sri Lankan batsman Arjuna Ranatunga the victim here.
Shane Warne, trying to tempt the batsman out of his crease mused what it took to get the plump character to get out of his crease and drive. Wicketkeeper Ian Healy piped up,
"Put a Mars Bar on a good length. That should do it."
Hope u had a good laugh after reading though them... pls do post if u have more.
e? Why does this vacation suddenly seem too short and unfulfilling? A vacation? Is that what I said? Hmmm, this heat must be making me lose my mind. And why? Because I have the utterly easy, simply accomplished task of getting myself a good percentage for all to show. Whom have I got to blame? None other than my ambitious self, mind you. Any wonder I’m getting lost in self contemplation and mindless self loathing. This lethargy is creeping over me like a warm quilt on a hot summer night- that’s right, totally unwanted. Studies is looming up like tidal tsunami wave and I’m powerless to stop it cause i get ruled by my emotions and feelings and right now this heart is screaming ‘lets party’ while this mind is screaming ‘you have to sit down and study’. Clash of the titans? No wonder I’m feeling so upset. Wouldn’t you be feeling it too? And then I think about anything other than the immediate problem- the truckload of study- I think about something like, lets say, intelligence? Do I have any? That’s laughable. Well let’s see intelligence is common sense+ general knowledge right? Something that we depend on in crises that we land in because of lack of it in the first place. Very ironic. Everyone considers themselves to be intelligent on some level- consciously or subconsciously but the fact is very few are truly and consistently intelligent. Everyone has intelligence but few have mastered the art of using it. Even Archimedes had his bouts of pure nuttiness like Eureka. And actually I prefer eccentricity over intelligence it adds such a delightful flavor to life. Intelligence is used to master life; I think eccentricity is used to play around with it. The perfect combination of both would make each day a wonder but I fear I get the latter more than the former.
