Sledging is used for the wrong purpose. It should be to distract players from their concentration. Not to abuse them or show your superiority. Compare it to the two most popular board games: GO and Chess.
In Chess, the objective is linear motion and the destination clear, KILL the KING. It is a direct and Westernized approach to consolidate position and force. Cricket nations like SA and PAK,IND,BD,SL use this strategy. They throw abusive language, target the players’ family, his merit in the team and finally, his existence. This leads to a mirror effect which Robert Greene explains in the 48 Laws of Power. The opposition wallows to your level and nothing is accomplished because you cannot sustain the equivalent abuse.
In the Chinese game of GO, the objective is to obtain the SPACE of the BOARD. Each player is given characters and the board is white and black. Yet the motion is nonlinear, the strategy is to use your fluidity in such a manner that you can surround your enemy. They cannot possibly predict your next move. Cricket nations like AUS, ENG and to an extent the old school WI’s of the 80’s used this type of sledging. They use specific circumstances to pounce on the opposition. For example, Tito Best was batting and Freddie Flintoff standing at slip. After several deliveries, Flintoff remarked, “mind the windows Tito”. The result? Tito trying to smash the next ball for six and being stumped. Another example is Shane Warne bowling to Craig McMillan. Pitching a full length outside off, McMillan would pad rather extravegently, followed by snicker from the wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. A few deliveries later, Warne throws the ball that should be called a wide, yet McMillan, in an attempt to restore his damaged hubris, pushes the ball straight to Simon Katich at silly point. Now the sledging should be that you neither get fined by the governing body of the cricketing world (ICC) and to inflict a non-physical blow to your opponent simultaneously.
Now the current generation of AUS and to an extent ENG(Anderson,Stokes) are now following the Chess type strategy of sledging and paying the price. With multiple fines in this cash fueled era of cricket, the game is suffering from both fatigued governing and lack of passion on the field. Sledging is after all, just supposed to be communication between two teams playing a game (Test cricket) that less than ten nations play all together.
