Taylor condones sledging, accuses Ranatunga

The recently completed tour of Australia by the West Indies threw into sharp focus the question of sledging. The problem first hit the highlights when Mark Waugh muttered something after hitting Curtley Ambrose for a four, prompting the bowler to race down to the batsman's end, in a state of absolute fury. On that occasion, Ambrose had to be restrained by captain Courtney Walsh and the close in fielders. Subsequently, in an interview, Waugh admitted that he had started it, and that he had never been as frightened in his life as when he saw Ambrose's fury.

However, the denouement occured during the fifth Test, when young opener Brian Samuels joined Brian Lara in a big partnership for the second wicket. The Aussie fielders and bowlers heckled Samuels right through the innings, prompting an incensed Lara to lash out in print, accusing the Aussies of being unsporting, of deliberately going after a young player who was trying to do his best, and of concentrated verbal abuse.

Aussie skipper Mark Taylor, for his part, responded by saying that a bit of sledging was part and parcel of the modern game, and in his turn accused Brian Lara of being an "antagonist" who deliberately looked for things to get incensed about.

And now it is Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga's turn to add his two bits to the raging debate, which recieved a fresh impetus when, on the concurrent tour of South Africa by India, Allan Donald openly abused Indian batsman Rahul Dravid after being hit for a six by the latter in the final of the ODI series.

Ranatunga not only accused Taylor of condoning sledging, but has advised him to "eave such disgusting methods to the gutter".

Ranatunga's response comes because Taylor had, earlier, named the Sri Lankan captain along with Lara as "chronic antagonists". "I think Lara is an antagonist, there is no doubt about it... I think he plays it very well, along the lines of a Ranatunga-type player," Taylor had said then, provoking Ranatunga's present response.

In a statement, Ranatunga said in Colombo on Tuesday that during the 1996 tour of Australia, Sri Lankan players were constantly subjected to racial abuse and even deliberate physical contact by their Australian counterparts.

"We believe cricket is a gentleman's game," said Ranatunga in his statement. "From the behaviour of the Australian players in the field, one could hardly believe that they were conscious of such perceptions."

Responding to Taylor's criticism of Lara and Ranatunga, the Sri Lankan captain said, "Maybe Taylor would like to consider why all these problems happen only when teams visit Australia, and Australia are fielding? Maybe it is the herd instinct within the safety of the domestic enclave?"

Ranatunga pointed out that Taylor is the successor to a proud tradition of Australian captains and cricketers such as Sir Donald Bradman, who have unreservedly condemned sledging in all forms. "Mark Taylor, by condoning such methods, is not only doing great disservice to himself, but to his predecessors as well," Ranatunga said.

Tailpiece from Prem Panicker: "Sleding" is a word that has most cricket fans wondering. In fact, during the recent SA tour, I had several dozen e-mails from friends, asking if I knew precisely what happens during "sledging".

The tactic is simple, if not exactly sportsmanlike - and the objective is to disrupt the concentration of the opposing batsman. Perhaps an example will illustrate...

A couple of years ago, this question had come up during a casual discussion with one of India's greatest cricketers. And he told me this story.

Seems that during a tour of Australia, he was taking strike, with India in some trouble and needing the best efforts of all its batsmen to bail it out. And as the bowler ran in and got into his delivery stride, he (the batsman) clearly heard, from the direction of the slips, these words: "Hey, brownie, guess who is ******** your missus this afternoon?"

The precise word used has been represented here in asterisks, but relates to sexual intercourse. And this, he said, was pretty representative of what was being said to him almost throughout the duration of that innings.

I asked the former Test great how cricketers cope. His reply was: Some, like Javed Miandad, give back as good as they get. Others, like Vivian Richards, merely give a stare at the offender - but a Richards stare is frightening enough to check the abuse right there. As for himself, he said his preferred response was, sometime during the over, to wait for the bad ball, despatch it to the boundary, then turn to the abusive fielder and smile angelically.

Shades of Rahul Dravid versus Allan Donald?