Boycott slams cricket administrators for allowing sledging to persist

'One day there will be a fight between players because a batsman will decide he is not going to take such abusive remarks from a bowler. Whose fault will that be? The batsman who retaliates or the abusive bowler?'

Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott has come down heavily on umpires and the game’s administrators for allowing sledging openly.

“Steve Waugh called it mental disintegration while the modern-day cricketer calls it sledging. Many of them do it to each other as a course of habit. It is so common place and if their wives and girlfriends heard what they were saying then they would be mortified. If they made such remarks to guys in a pub there would be a fight.

“Why do international cricketers think it is OK to abuse people on a cricket field and get away with it? Why do the cricket authorities do nothing about it? The umpires hear this foul-mouthed abuse so why do they not stop it?” Boycott wrote in his column in The Telegraph.

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“When I played, the West Indies fast bowlers, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall and Colin Croft, or the Australians, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, I was never sledged once. And great English bowlers like John Snow, Bob Willis and Ian Botham never resorted to sledging and they got a bucketful of Test wickets.

"When they swore, it was out of frustration but not at the umpire and not at the batsman. And those guys are remembered as all-time greats.

"It shows you can be successful and win Test matches without being abusive to the opposition,” Boycott wrote.

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Boycott added that he had spoken to the English Cricket Board’s director to ask players to cut out the misbehavior.

“A couple of weeks ago I asked Paul Downton, the new managing director of English Cricket, why he or the coach or captain does not tell our players to cut it out. We all want England to win, but surely you can have aggression and competitive spirit without the need for sledging. If England stopped it now we could take the moral high ground about standards of behaviour. What other teams do should not be our problem, but if we are seen to be above sledging then other countries may follow suit.

“Sledging is a blight on cricket and needs stamping out. Light-hearted banter, amusing remarks are great for the game. But this stuff is downright offensive. Downton agreed with me but was reluctant to tell Jimmy not to do it in case he lost his competitive edge,” Boycott added.

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Urging players and officials to set a high moral code, Boycott wrote, “I believe if something is not right you should set a moral standard. It should have nothing to do with winning or losing. One day there will be a fight between players because a batsman will decide he is not going to take such abusive remarks from a bowler. Whose fault will that be? The batsman who retaliates or the abusive bowler?”

Commenting on the ongoing strife between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja, Boycott pointed out that ‘Anderson is no angel’.

“Nobody is certain what went on in the corridor at Trent Bridge between Jimmy and Ravindra Jadeja.

The judicial commissioner seems to think it was argy bargy and he could not believe witnesses he described as “hopelessly biased” in their evidence, so the pair escaped with no case to answer."

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“But Jimmy is a Jekyll and Hyde character. Off the field he is such a softly-spoken lad, but on it he often attempts to unsettle batsmen into doing something silly by making crude psychological innuendo to the opposition.

"Jimmy is no angel and gave Jadeja some stick. At some point I would not be surprised if Jadeja reacted and gave some back. Jimmy should reflect on whether he wants to be remembered as one of the all-time great English seam bowlers or a foul-mouthed abusive bowler,” Boycott added.

He then asked Anderson to let his bowling do the talking.

“Anderson should zip it up and bowl. Get wickets, win the Test match then there is no need to say anything. You let your bowling do the talking. I hope this scare or threat of suspension from playing Test matches for the rest of the summer has registered with him. He has had a lucky escape and he does not need to open his mouth because he is that good,” the former England opening batsman wrote.

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Comparing Anderson to England’s legendary all-rounder Ian Botham, Boycott said the 31-year old is 40 per cent of England’s bowling attack.

“He bowls swing and seam at pace with hardly any four-balls, which puts batsmen under serious pressure. When they cannot score runs and they are thinking ‘I’m going to nick one of these good deliveries any time soon’ it plays on their minds and they try stupid shots or are so timid and tentative.

“Either way, he gets batsmen out with his skill, or the pressure he applies helps his bowling partner at the other end to take a wicket,”