Rod Marsh’s one liner “so how’s your wife and my kids” has been voted the best cricket sledge of all time.
The former Australian wicketkeeper used the sledge to intimidate alpha-male Botham in the 1986-87 Ashes test, which England won 2-1.
He is said to have asked Botham: “How’s your wife and my kids?”, to which Botham replied: “Wife is fine, kids are r******d.”
The sledge topped this reply from England’s James Ormond to a put down from Mark Waugh.
After Waugh told Ormond, “Mate, what are you doing out here? There’s no way you’re good enough to play for England.”
The batsman replied, “Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my own family”, in reference to Waugh’s brother Steve, who was the captain of the Australian team.
Daryll Cullinan also had Shane Warne with a classic sledge.
As Cullinan was heading out to the wicket, Warne told him he had been waiting two years for another chance to humiliate him.
Cullinan replied, “Looks like you spent it eating.”
Maxibon, the ice cream sandwich, conducted the research of 1,000 cricket fans to launch their first sponsorship of the Yorkshire Vikings T20.
While the research revealed hitting a six is the most exciting element of cricket for most people, a fifth of cricket fans said that watching the players sledge each other was their favourite aspect of the game.
Other all-time classics include:
– Andrew Flintoff (England) and Tino Best (West Indies): “Watch the windows, Tino.”
– Merv Hughes (Australia) vs Robin Smith (England): “If you turn the bat over you’ll get the instructions mate.”
– Viv Richards (West Indies) and Merv Hughes (Australia): “Let’s see you hit that to the boundary!”
– Glen McGrath (Australia) and Eddo Brandes (Zimbabwe): “Why are you so fat?”
– Dennis Lilllee (Australia) sledging the world: “I can see why you are batting so badly, you’ve got some **** on the end of your bat”.
– Shane Warne (Australia) and Darren Berry (Australia) sledge Michael Slater (Australia) “Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock.”
So why does sledging go down so well with cricket fans?
Off the cricket pitch, over half of people admit to joking around regularly with their friends and family.
Work colleagues aren’t let off the hook either, showing that it’s not just cricketers who like to play around with their nearest and dearest.
In fact, the majority of people admit to participating in sledging activity multiple times a day.
And in the battle of the sexes, it still seems like men are leading the charge when it comes to joking around, with both women and men agreeing that men are better at it than their female counterparts.
Susanne Frecker at Maxibon, said: “To celebrate our sponsorship of the T20 we wanted to find out what cricket fans really think of sledging.
“We think it is a fun part of the game that sets it apart from other sports, and it’s great that cricket fans agree.
“We’ll be working with the Yorkshire Country Cricket Club to bring our ice cream sandwiches, along with our big personality, to T20 matches throughout the 2017 season.”
ENDS
