Former captain Mark Taylor said on Sunday that Cricket Australia were considering a ban on sledging, or verbal taunting, after the ball-tampering scandal and fractious current Test series with South Africa. The ball tempering incident saw Steve Smith and David Warner stripped of the captaincy and vice-captaincy and banned from the sport for a year, followed an ill-tempered start to the series. Cameron Bancroft was also suspended for nine months.
When asked if a ban on sledging was “a possibility”, Taylor, a Cricket Australia board member, told broadcaster Channel Nine: “Absolutely. You are not going to stop people talking out on the field. Talking is one thing,” he added.
“Abusing, sledging… bullying, verbalising whatever you want to call it is another thing. It’s gone too far.”
“That may or may not happen in a board meeting in three weeks’ time that’s not to be aired on national television,” he added further.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has also called for an end to sledging, saying on Tuesday that the “strongest action” needed to be taken as the verbal abuse had gotten “right out of control”.
