Mohali: Sledging is rampant in the ongoing India-Australia series; but players have come up with a novel way to avoid getting caught.
They now make sure they’re nowhere near the stumps' microphone before sledging. Shane Watson, who could not have believed that he was clean bowled, was asked by bowler Ishant Sharma to stay away from the wicket and start walking back to the pavilion. Watson, refusing to comment from the crease however, made sure he was near the middle of the wicket before attacking Sharma verbally.
Ricky Ponting too made sure no one heard what he told Zaheer Khan on the first day. He made sure to walk far away from the stumps. The penalty for sledging is so high now that players no longer want to be caught, but sledging continues none-the-less.
Ponting had declared that he was looking forward to a controversy-free series and it seems Mahendra Singh Dhoni has also been told by Indian cricket officials to restrain all his players from creating any untoward incidents. The spot fixing scandal hogged the headlines last month and many feel that cricket was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Sachin Tendulkar has a new way to avoid bowlers from sledging him. Whenever a bowler comes close to him, Tendulkar walks towards the square leg umpire as if to regain his concentration and he rarely looks at the bowler who has beaten him.
Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha, when asked about the ongoing sledging, said: “Some words do get exchanged during the pressure and the heat of the moment and hence should not be taken seriously”.
Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar, who is here as a commentator, questions this attitude. “There was never any abuse on the field during Don Bradman’s time, Richie Benaud’s period and even during Clive Lloyd’s period. Does this mean that matches during those times were not played without any pressure or intensity?”
