* Sledging ( cricket )

Sledging is a term used in cricket to describe the practice whereby some players seek to gain an advantage by insulting or verbally intimidating the opposing player.

* Sledging part of Latham's cricket days – The Melbourne Age

Sledging is often mistaken for abuse, and whilst comments aimed as sledges do sometimes cross the line into personal abuse, this is not usually the case.

Sledging came into the media spotlight during the 2007 – 08 Indian tour of Australia when Harbhajan Singh was accused of alleged racial abuse towards Andrew Symonds.

The Western Sledging Party was the last-but-one to return: Douglas Mawson's Far-Eastern Sledging Party, consisting of Mawson, Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz, was still missing.

Sledging is usually simply an often humorous, sometimes insulting attempt at distraction.

Sledging is common at most levels of the game in Australia, but one Australian with a particular reputation for sledging was former fast bowler Merv Hughes.

In the Australian edition of the 2002 Wisden Cricketers ' Almanack, he wrote a chapter titled The Curse of Sledging.

The 1974 – 75 Australians were labelled the Ugly Australians for their hard-nosed cricket, verbal abuse and hostile fast bowling.

Although the practice of trying to distract opponents by verbal abuse is common to virtually all sports, " sledging " per se relates to cricket.

This venue was first mentioned in 1725 when the 7 May minutes of the Honourable Artillery Company referred to its being used for cricket: there is a note which concerns " the abuse done to the herbage of the ground by the cricket players ".

* Interesting Cricket Stats comments on cricket stats, last updated January 2009

" I was asked about for my cricket ", he comments after this period is over.

In later life, he was known for his blunt and critical comments towards modern players, believing the cricket in earlier times to be superior.

Fingleton often made self-deprecating comments about his batting, telling English cricket writer Alan Gibson that he " missed nothing " by not seeing him bat.

In his Social History of English Cricket, Derek Birley comments that school cricket was " alive and well during the interregnum " ( 1649 – 1660 ).

His cricket blog is one the best read in world sports, and each entry receives hundreds of comments debating the complexities and mysteries of Pakistani cricket.

Woodfull's abrupt response was meant to be private, but it was leaked to the press and became the most famous quotation of this tumultuous period in cricket history:

However, a combination of fatigue from continuous cricket and some technical problems with his batting meant that he struggled for the rest of the season ; he often failed with the bat and his fielding was criticised by the press.

However, a combination of a wet summer, the effects of switching from matting pitches to grass ones, and tiredness from having played cricket for 18 months without a substantial break meant that Hobbs record was poor in 1910.

Hobbs was more successful at Idle in 1916, scoring 790 runs at 52. 60 and taking 65 wickets at 6. 27, but his conscription into the Royal Flying Corps meant this was his final season of regular cricket in the league.

Despite wearing steel-rimmed spectacles Smith was a heavy run-maker in County cricket and passed 2, 000 runs a season each year from 1957 to 1962, including 3, 245 runs ( 57. 94 ) in 1959, but his fragility against fast bowling meant that he could not hold down a regular place in the Test team.

As cricket is a time-limited game, it meant that sides that dominated the opposition could be forced to draw rather than win games.

His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the " Sultans of Swing ", the other one being Waqar Younis.

His participation in the league meant that he, like many other Pakistan players, he was banned from representing his country at both international level and domestic cricket in Pakistan.

Waugh regularly expressed his belief that the honouring of the traditions of the game was critical to the success of a team: " To be able to partake of these rituals and traditions has meant you have been awarded the highest honour in Australian cricket — you have been selected to play for your country.

Many of the fours had well cleared the boundary, but the laws of cricket in 1902 meant that to obtain six runs the ball had to be hit out of the ground.

Woodfull's abrupt response was meant to be private, but it was leaked to the press and became the most famous quotation of this tumultuous period in cricket history:

After an excellent domestic season for Somerset, including 184 in a 40-over match against Gloucestershire ( his highest List A score ), Trescothick released his autobiography, Coming Back to Me ( ISBN 978-0007302116 ), on 1 September 2008, explaining that he had suffered from anxiety attacks since the age of 10, and that playing domestic cricket meant that, at all times, he was only ever three hours away from his family.

He was regarded as a potential captain, but his image outside cricket, injuries and tendency to lose form at crucial times meant that he captained India in only one Test match.

It remains to be seen whether he can recover his solid technique and return to Test cricket as the formidable opener he was meant to be.

This meant that with the playing surfaces of the two sports pitches being at different levels, cricket could no longer be played at this venue unless the ground was raised to the same level as the GAA pitch.

However, difficulties encountered in transporting teams to Western Australia meant that the ground was not part of Australia's main cricket community for many years.

Chronic knee trouble, which had curtailed his rugby career, meant that Lewis retired from cricket at the age of 35, but writing and broadcasting had always been his main pursuit from 1963.

Teaching commitments meant that he only played one full summer of county cricket.

The apartheid policy followed by the South African Governments of the day meant that no Test match playing nation was willing to tour, thereby depriving world cricket of leading stars such as Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Clive Rice and Eddie Barlow.

But the French Revolution meant that they never got to France, thereby making his tour the first international cricket tour to be cancelled for political reasons.

This was partly because his style of cricket meant that he could alter the course of a match in a short space of time, although he developed his technique to minimise risk.

He made his debut as a television cricket commentator, although his failing health and talkative style meant he was less successful than on the radio.

However, his consistent heavy scoring in county cricket meant that he was always on the fringes of selection.