Australia’s head coach Justin Langer feels that “sledding is a good thing” as the Qantas are now preparing to face England in their first series since March’s dramatic ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. However, Langer also opined that “banter” would not be allowed to descend into “abuse”, as captain Tim Paine promised Australia “won’t be silent” during a five-match One-Day International series.
Former Australia skipper 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, 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 lethal 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. He said, “In Australia, sledging’s a good thing: if I play Uno (a card game) with my daughter we sledge each other. 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.”
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During the press-conference at Lord’s, Justin said, “Even if we were so nice people would think we’re a bunch of hard-edged 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. I’m sure you’re going to hear us talking through the stump mic. But it’s up to me, Justin and the senior players to stay on the side of banter and never go to abuse.”
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He further added, “There’s no doubt our reputation took a bit of a battering (in South Africa). Coming to England now with new faces, a new coach, just getting back into cricket is an opportunity for us to move on and show we’ve made a few changes.”
The former Australian skipper, Ricky Ponting will be assisting Langer next week but the coach said it was ultimately down to the players to make good on the team’s new code of conduct. He said, “We have our values and our expectations, that’s really important. But I’ve said this for 25 years, we can have the fanciest mission statements, but if you don’t live them, they’re like toilet paper mate. They are written down, but unless you live then they’re meaningless.”
Australia, the World Cup champions, begin their series with 2019 hosts England, currently the top-ranked ODI side, at The Oval on June 13.
