Sledging gets Ashes off to a bumpy ride

Andy Roberts, a fearsome fast bowler in the formidable West Indies side of the 1970s, was renowned for not talking to opponents on the field.
If you ask those who faced him if this meant he lacked for 'commitment' or 'aggression', chances are you'll receive a very hollow laugh.
Equally, it's pretty difficult for everyone involved in a cricket match, where teams can be in the field for several hours at a stretch, to be as tight-lipped as Roberts.
Indeed when on the opening day of the first Test at Brisbane in 1946 Australia great Don Bradman, having made an unconvincing 28, was given "not out" after England were certain he'd nicked the ball to Jack Ikin at second slip, England captain Wally Hammond is reported to have said: "That's a (expletive deleted) fine way to start an Ashes series."

Roll the clock on some 67 years and there was general agreement Australia captain Michael Clarke had gone too far in threatening England No 11 James Anderson with a "broken arm" towards the end of the recent Ashes opener in Brisbane, which the hosts won by the crushing margin of 381 runs.
That was certainly the view of the International Cricket Council, who fined Clarke 20 percent of his match fee.

But afterwards Mitchell Johnson, England's tormentor-in-chief at Brisbane with his fiery left-arm fast bowling, said of the sledging: "I think it's worked for us. I definitely think they (England) are rattled by it."

It was all a far cry from the kind of amusing exchange enjoyed by Australia bowler Merv Hughes and England batsman Robin Smith.
Hughes, having told Smith he wasn't much of a batsman, saw his next ball hit for four.
"Hey Merv we make a fine pair. I can't bat and you can't bowl," Smith said, although his precise reply was a touch more colourful.