Quote:
AFP - England batsman Graham Thorpe said sledging during their ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka was nothing compared to that in Australia.
"It's probably much worse in Australia to be honest," Thorpe said a day after match referee Clive Lloyd reprimanded the teams for bad behaviour.
"There are quite a few of us in the dressing room who have taken plenty of stick off certain cricket teams over the years and we kept our mouths shut about it," said Thorpe.
England's only previous Test tour of Sri Lanka two years ago had seen some tense moments and on Thursday the home side complained to the match referee about Nasser Hussain, England's captain on that tour.
Thorpe said too much was being made of the episode. "It's been going on for years. A little bit of chat. It's no big deal really. There is a little bit of gamesmanship, otherwise it would be boring out there," he said.
Thorpe felt that at times players made things look much worse than they really were. "It's like trying to get players sent off in football. Waving your hand at a referee telling him to yellow or red card a player. You don't need to do it. That's not sportsmanship in my view," he said.
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An Englishman suggesting that exposing sledging is poor sportsmanship and that a "good sledge" is all just part of the game. And he includes a sledge at the Aussies at the same time - I truly think our world sledging title is coming under threat here and we need to treat this challenge seriously
. Let's face it, this could be the first serious threat that Australia cricket has faced from the english in the living memory of most people on this board
.