PAUL Nixon joins the list of ex-players and pundits who consider sledging to be acceptable and “part of the game”. He refers all too briefly to, in some ways, the worst aspect, namely the way it has filtered down to grass roots cricket.
There’s nothing worse than a 15-year-old trotting out the same old boring remarks as his senior colleagues, lacking in both originality and any element of humour and intended purely to distract or intimidate the batsman and create a bad atmosphere.
The question is, what is so special about cricket that makes sledging acceptable...