Part 2 - Botham, Gavaskar & Prior on Sledging | 2014 MCC Spirit of Cricket Q&A 

Greg Thomas to Vivian Richards: _"It's round, red, and about 5 ounces if you were wondering."_ Vivian Richards to Greg Thomas: *Promptly hits the ball out of the park, and into the river* _"You know what it looks like. Go find it."_ Best......Sledge......Ever!

Matt prior: thank you. No one team is any worse than any other.

mark nicholas is very articulate and concise with his thoughts

Thats why people respect Gavaskar

Prior went to the wrong meeting, the other two are a class above....

Sledging is a tactic and near essential part of the game. The strongest, talented and most unruffled team wins. The overuse or severity of it should be and probably is an unwritten law amongst players but I’d go the other way and have it heard by the public which in turn would keep it at a respectable level and I must add no doubt entertaining. Too many snowflakes in this day and age.

What is matt prior doin in that frame!!!!

What the fook is Prior doing there? lol seriously....!

The Xbox point is quite valid.

What do they say to each other in a rugby union scrum?

Sunny summed it up well. Let the bat and ball do the talking. Full stop ... whether it is being picked up with microphones and sent all over the world or not.

Gavaskar was the best.

What is prior doing there?

Prior is the Bernie Ecclestone of this group.

Sledging is only bad when you can't handle it ... Botham said it himself, there are some players you don't sledge because they would tear you apart while others go back to their laptop and look up terms they were called and mentally they were spent ... one less wicket to worry about ... it's just words, the old sticks and stones, it won't destroy you ... if they sledge, they're trying to get into your head ... funny thing is it means you're already in theirs so game on, it's not that hard

Sledging has a place in cricket and it should be there.But the thing is it should be used tactically and not necessarily everytime.The primary purpose is to get the batsman out.But it should also be taken into consideration that overuse of it makes the team doing it weak.It is taking easy way out.When a batsman goes after the bowler naturally the bowler will show aggression but there should be some restriction on the verbal abuse on the field.No batsman deserves to be roasted like that.As far as clapping is concerned after someone scores 50 who does that?How many times has Gavaskar clapped after someone has scored a 50?The opposition claps only when someone has played a really tough knock on a good pitch.

Sunny pretty much ran out of his leg length :D

Botham doesn't think that much of Gavaskar. He can barely say that Gavaskar is 'one of the greats'.

Gavaskar was a far better Cricketer than Botham and 100 times better human being

Gavaskar did not sledge,,,,,,,,,,,he just ordered his partner off the ground when he got a decision he didn't agree with.................ah yes Sunny the spirit of cricket.....wanker

Wow. Ian Botham is so full of himself. Was a great player. But would've been nice to see a bit of modesty in him.

The 'English' speaking countries has almost the monopoly for this sledging because it needs to be creative to mentally breakdown the opposite side by words. It is much more difficult to sledge in a language that is different to your own mother-tongue. Non-English speaking has less number of players who can sledge more effectively. There is also cultural aspects. Like talking something bad about your parents is much more painful thing to hear for people in Indian subcontinent. It is something like saying something race/skin color in English.

Botham talks of self policing and having a beer at the bar together at end of day to handle this. We all know what happened at the bar with him and Ian Chappel. So cocky and full of himself.