Stop the abuse, this is not war

Earlier this year The Cricket Monthly interviewed Michael Holding and Wasim Akram side by side on how fast bowling has changed over the years. The two were asked if it was important to be angry to be able to bowl fast. For fast bowling is not a natural act. Perhaps to get that much extra out of your body you need to arouse yourself into a state where the emotions push you, make you reach deeper. Holding shot back immediately and dryly, "You don't have to be angry." Akram said two words: "Controlled aggression."

When reminded - since it was in news - of the widely believed theory that James Anderson needs to get into that angry and nasty mindset to be at his best, to be in his Jimmy persona, Holding instantly retorted: "Rubbish. In the last Test match, at The Oval, he never did that."

On the sidelines of the inaugural Walter Hadlee lecture, Richard Hadlee told Fairfax two days ago: "The game should be played hard and with intensity, but not with this combative approach. There is no need for sledging and abuse of players and officials."

After Phillip Hughes died in November, Martin Crowe wrote in his piece on this website that the game had become too lippy and too edgy; that this was the time to pause and reflect on all the threats that are made on the field in order to get under the opposition's skin. He hoped for a more respectful, calmer game. When Michael Clarke spoke of listening to "Phillip's spirit", of learning from it, in his eulogy, Crowe, and many others who wish to watch the game just for the skills and the courage, would have been hopeful.

Even as New Zealand and Pakistan finished their Test in restrained atmosphere - so shocked were New Zealand they didn't bowl a single bouncer all day - it took India and Australia three days to have their first ugly spat. Evidently it was Virat Kohli's send-offs to Chris Rogers and David Warner that started it, and Warner's mocking of one of the send-offs when it was discovered he had been bowled off a no-ball broke all hell loose.

Since then the edginess has been back. Three Indians and one Australian have been booked for breaching the spirit of cricket through their sledging and their send-offs. In just two Tests. Neither side has contested the charges; possibly they know there are others who have got away with it. It is, once again, a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode into another Jadeja-Anderson.

The Indians are of the stern view that sledging was all right as long as Australia, England and South Africa did it. Not now that they are also doing it. "Now that we are giving it back, they can't handle it," they all say in private. VVS Laxman tweeted as much when the Gabba Test was on. They also see - as their western counterparts have - tactical benefits in sledging. They are a confident, brash generation, not ones to take a backward step when in confrontation.

In 2008 Robin Uthappa narrated an instructive incident to ESPNcricinfo. During the World T20 in South Africa, he said he had looked straight at Matthew Hayden only to be told, "What are you looking at? I have played 11 years of international cricket. Give me some respect." Later, during the triangular series in Australia, MS Dhoni gave his boys free rein, and every time they saw Hayden come out, they would line up, start applauding and say, "Respect. Respect."

The reason behind all this, Uthappa said, was: "They don't expect us to retaliate and, when we do, they don't know what to do." Now there was a reason why nobody noticed this clever and witty "respect" retort back then. Because it was precisely that: clever and witty. Not personal and abusive. Uthappa admitted things got personal and abusive too. And they were noticed and seen. Somehow they always tend to do between India and Australia. They can get downright nasty, like the time when Shikhar Dhawan mocked the injured Shane Watson with a fake limp in Bangalore. How Dhawan got away with that is a clear mockery of ICC's spirit of cricket. The results haven't changed much: India still can't win in Australia even though theirs is a more unsettled side, they still beat Australia at home. Maybe, it is the skills that are more important.

These two teams' regular captains have shown no signs they are in any danger of taking a step back. Before the start of this season, Clarke spoke of how Australia will continue their aggressive body language. Dhoni wants the sledging to go on as long as it is done within the limits of the spirit of the game. He uses the words passion and entertainment almost every time he justifies some needle on the field. The spirit of cricket for him is to not be seen doing or saying things you wouldn't wants kids to see and emulate.

The damage, though, is done: go to any maidan in Mumbai and you will see school kids use some of the vilest abuse you will ever hear. A Mumbai coach in the mid-2000s told off a new import for not playing cricket the Mumbai way, for not abusing the batsmen.

When Dhoni put his foot down in pressing charges against Anderson in England, the by-product of the investigation was the coming to the fore of the incessant and inane abuse on a cricket field, the kind you wouldn't allow in any workplace. You would have hoped everyone would have been embarrassed, including the umpires for not checking it. On the evidence of nine days of cricket in this series, nothing has changed.

The four players quoted at the top of this article, who talk of a game almost foreign to us younger viewers, played in the '70s, '80s and '90s. Has the game changed so much since they retired or are they looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses? Most of the players of that vintage blame Allan Border and Steve Waugh for introducing chatter as a strategy to win at all costs.

Neither those former players nor us watching from outside can remotely understand the pressures out there in the middle. The players have never been under such intense scrutiny or attention before. Every little incident is reported and reacted to, which is possibly why they seem to have increased. Earlier on this tour, former Australia batsman Rick Darling told this website that back in his playing days Shield bowlers used to give him outright death threats while sledging. Possibly the incidents just look uglier through live coverage of every match. Possibly winning at all costs has indeed become more important.

Yet, that it happened in the past too, that the pressures are higher today, should not be the reason to continue with abuse on the field. Personal abuse and ugly send-offs can be stamped out. Remember, some of the most celebrated and effective sledges have been inconspicuous. It is not a battlefield out there, no matter the number of war clichés spouted by lazy commentators and journalists. It might not be any worse than in the past, pressures might be bringing out the worst in the players, but it's never too late to start making a change for the better.