Hurting with the ball fine, not so the mouth

Not only do I thoroughly enjoy your commentary on the current South Africa-Australia Test cricket series, your wisdom is something I feel the International Cricket Council (ICC) should tap into.

You also remind me of one of my favourite cricketing stories when the West Indies were playing England at The Oval in 1976. You were bowling to England’s Peter Willey and legendary commentator Brian Johnston said: “The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey!” I laughed so much that I nearly spilled my brandy and ginger ale, but that’s beside the point.

Sledging has dominated the news, so much so that it has often detracted from the cricket itself. There are many clever sledges on record, but there are also those that are extremely personal and have no place in the game.

During the second Test in Port Elizabeth, I heard you advocating the use of a card system in cricket, similar to the one they use in football. You said you had served on an ICC committee many years ago and had suggested implementing this, but your fellow panel members didn’t back you. Why not, I asked myself.

Then it hit me. A yellow card for speaking out of line, followed @GuyHawthorne by a red card and a sending-off for a second transgression, wouldn’t work in any match in which the Australians were playing. They have – and over the years have had – numerous David Warners in their line-up and the introduction of a card system would in all likelihood reduce their numbers drastically during a match.

A contest in which Australia ended up with only seven or eight players on the field wouldn’t be much of a contest, would it? But on the plus side, it would mean the Aussies would lose more often than not and in my book that is as good a reason as any to rubberstamp the proposal.

You hurt a good many players in your day, but instead of barbs about their wives, mothers or sisters, you did it with the cricket ball. The old “sticks and stones” ditty applied to you, but instead of sticks and stones you inflicted pain with the ball. You didn’t have to resort to childish slurs about members of an opponent’s family.

And perhaps that is exactly the issue here. It’s about an individual’s personality; about how they choose to react to a situation. While some resort to spewing filth that would be out of place in a pub, let alone on a cricket field, others, like you, choose to let their ability do the talking.

We have all come across them, those bullies who have a big mouth when things don’t go their way and they lack the wherewithal to turn things around without resorting to hurtful wisecracks.

Maybe it is up to selectors to root out this evil. No matter how talented a player, don’t select him if he doesn’t know when to wind in his neck and keep his trap shut.

Tell him to try stand-up comedy instead...