Aussies won’t be silent in England ODIs: Paine
london — Australia coach Justin Langer insisted “sledging’s a good thing” as the eam prepared to face England in their first series since March’s dramatic ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
Langer, however, stressed that “banter” would not be allowed to descend into “abuse”, as captain Tim Paine promised Australia “won’t be silent” during a fivematch one-day international series. Former Australia captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were banned for a year for their part in the ball-tampering incident during the third Test in Cape Town.
Meanwhile batsman Cameron Bancroft — who applied sandpaper to the ball in a clear breach of cricket’s rulebook — was given a ninemonth ban by Cricket Australia. The trio were all sent home in disgrace, with wicket-keeper Paine taking over as captain in South Africa. Darren Lehmann then resigned as coach and was replaced by Langer.
After the ball-tampering scandal,
there were concerns that sledging or verbal taunts had contributed to a toxic atmosphere between the Australia and South Africa teams. But Langer said that, as far as he was concerned, sledging was just another word for banter. “In Australia
sledging’s a good thing: if I play Uno (a card game) with my daughter we sledge each other,” Langer told a news conference at Lord’s on Wednesday. “If I play golf with my parents, we sledge each other. There’s a difference between banter
and abuse. There’s no room for abuse anywhere,”the former Australia opener, who played at Lord’s for Middlesex, added.
“Even if we were so nice people would think we’re a bunch of hardedged Australians. “We’ll still be called sledging Australians, it’s been happening for the last 30 years. So we’ll cope with that.”
Paine, alongside Langer at Lord’s, explained: “The thing we’ve spoken about is the difference between abuse and banter. “We won’t be silent. We’re going to be speaking, trying to put pressure on teams as we usually do. But we have to be respectful.” Paine added: “I’m sure you’re going to hear us talking through the stump mic. —