You can sledge all you like, just don’t cross the line

NATHAN Lyon has talked about headbutting it so many times he clearly knows where it is.

But South African coach Ottis Gibson, who has only recently heard of it, hasn’t a clue.

It’s the “line” — that tenuously ambiguous horizon players should not cross when embarking in the dark art of sledging. There are certain things now that appear below it, such as walking past someone and calling them a “f---ing sook”, or screaming wildly at a batsman who just ran out his teammate for a duck.

So is telling a batsman to “prepare for a broken f---ing arm”.

But anything about wives, particularly “vile and disgusting” comments said from “behind” and “under his breath”, which is how David Warner described the verbal attack from South African Quinton de Kock, are over it. Apparently.

There seems, however, to be a different view on what is above and below the line, given South Africa chose to appeal a charge against de Kock because, as coach Gibson said, “we think Quinny didn’t do anything”.

That appeal was dismissed and de Kock fined. Obviously he crossed the line. But Gibson remains none the wiser about “this line”.

“There’s this thing and I have seen it recently now about the line. They are saying they didn’t cross the line, but where is the line, who sets the line, where did the line come from?’’ Gibson said.

“When you are saying you didn’t cross the line but we didn’t cross the line, you went very close to the line, whose line is it?”

Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis says maybe the “line” is different depending on where you’re standing, on the field or in a stairwell. “If you chirp each other it’s always on the field. There needs to be boundaries,” he said.

The Aussies did their best to establish where the “line” is before the first ball was bowled in Durban, if only to their own satisfaction.

“We know where the line is. We headbutt it, but we don’t go over it,” Lyon said before the first Test.

He said the same thing before the Ashes. It’s his operating mantra.

But he too copped a fine for bad behaviour, after dropping the ball too close to AB de Villiers when he was run out — the runout that Warner went wild about.

It’s pretty clear the exact position of the “line” remains very, very blurry.

Imaginary things often are.