Michael Clarke and Alastair Cook heeded a warning from the International Cricket Council on Tuesday to be responsible for their teams’ behavior as the captains in the >Ashes series .
In other words, don’t let sledging get out of hand.
They promised on Tuesday, the day before the first test starts at Sophia Gardens, it won’t cross the line.
It was a pre-test meeting with the match officials like any other, Cook said, but sledging has become an issue again because the Australians have derisively met a peace offering from James Anderson, England’s main strike bowler and leading sledger.
Anderson has been at the centre of some of the Ashes’ most notorious recent incidents. There was his and Mitchell Johnson’s verbal confrontations in the 2010-11 series in Australia, and Anderson, after abusing George Bailey, was told by Clarke at Brisbane in 2013 to “get ready for a broken arm” from Johnson’s bowling.
Anderson said he’s come to question sledging’s usefulness, particularly after the spirit of sportsmanship by the recently departed and missed New Zealand side. He hoped the Ashes could be played in the same spirit, but Johnson doubted Anderson could change, and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin said Anderson “better look at himself in the mirror.”
Anderson didn’t excuse his past behaviour, but said he doesn’t need sledging to pump himself up anymore.
“We are not going to seek out trouble, go looking for fights, or start sledging,” he wrote in a newspaper column.
Cook said they were reminded by the match officials of their responsibility to not only the spectators, but also to people watching on TV, which will carry live action in 36 countries.
“I do believe there is that line, in that sand somewhere, which everyone knows we can’t cross,” Cook said. “I hope we can play to that.”
“I’ve made it very clear, in the last series if someone overstepped that mark it was me. And, as captain, I need to be more disciplined, and I will be,” Clarke said.
Sledging wasn’t part of their game plan, he added.
“For me, you don’t have to say a word to show your intent, and to play a good brand of cricket. Whether I’ve sledged somebody or somebody sledged me, it’s never helped my game personally. For some players I’ve been fortunate to play with, (sledging) has helped their game. They seemed to benefit from that.
“As long as those players understand there’s a line you can’t overstep, then they know what they have to do to get the best out of themselves. Then the team succeeds.”
Clarke said they wouldn’t reveal the team until the toss, because the pitch changed overnight, and they wanted to see the overhead conditions. It’s forecast to be cloudy on the first morning.
Clarke also expected England to be unchanged from the side which drew 1-1 with New Zealand last month.
England has been revived by matching the attacking verve of New Zealand in limited-overs matches. In tests, Cook’s tactics have been wretched, and he’s under pressure to take the fight to his opponent that one-day captain Eoin Morgan did.
“Sometimes,” Cook admitted, “I have to get on that front foot.”
England was whitewashed in the last Ashes, in 2013-14 in Australia, and Cook said that result was no longer relevant.
“It’s gone. You can’t keep harping on about that,” he said at the news conference. “You’ve got to be very careful as players not to read too much into all that stuff.
“It’s a brand new challenge, a fresh start — both teams have new faces. Cricket isn’t played on what happened two years ago — it’s about what happens from tomorrow.”
