As a skipper it's always tricky to keep players (a) from doing something that will mean an umpire reporting them, and (b) saying things that create unnecessary animosity with the opposition. When I say unnecessary, I'm working on the assumption that anything said on the field should be said with the intention of increasing your chances of winning. If it doesn't increase your chances of winning why say it?
I've failed on both counts this season so far with a player reported for questioning a caught behind when he was convinced it came off his elbow, opposition spectators complaining to me about the loud swearing coming from the Steyning changing room after a dismissal, and unnecessary animosity created by comments made to the batsmen while we're fielding. But I don't think the captain has any chance at all of stopping these type of things, because they're all done in the spur of the moment....there's no chance for the captain to do anything apart from stop it escalating.
It has got me thinking about how players back, or don't back, their team mates when it comes to heated verbal exchanges. In Duncan Fletcher's book he talks about his concerns about Chris Read in terms of being combative with the opposition, and mentions the example of Paul Collingwood's verbal assault on Shane Warne from slip in the 2006/07 Ashes, where Read remained silent throughout rather than chirping support for his mate. Fletcher saw this as a weakness in Read but elsewhere in his book, Fletcher explains that different approaches are needed for different batsmen and Collingwood's verbal assault was probably ill-advised as Warne is the type of player who is spurred on by sledging.
Last Saturday we were very much on the back foot as Bognor Regis coasted to a 7 wicket win. Our (Aussie - not really relevant but just thought I'd mention it!) keeper shouted out encouragement and after a few dot balls shouted that they couldn't afford too many dot balls as there was under 10 overs left. I glanced at the scoreboard from next to him at slip and could see there were 11 overs to go but didn't correct him. A couple more dot balls and he repeated the comment, only for the batsman to turn around and correct him.
The reply from our keeper was something like "Don't you ****ing talk to me you ****. **** off and concentrate on your own ****ing game". There definitely would have been more said, but I stepped in as soon as I could. My gut feel was that the comments made it less likely we'd win as the batsman would knuckle down to ensure he was there right to the end rather than potentially play a loose shot as victory was close.
The question is, should you back your verbal-sparring mates even when you don't agree with their comments? Fletcher would seem to suggest you should, and I'm sure our keeper would argue that we had nothing to lose and his comments could have induced an adrenaline-filled false stroke. But it's still something that I feel incredibly uncomfortable with....perhaps I need to field somewhere other than slip so that I can't hear it all!
Typically after weeks of sunshine it looks like it might rain today in Cardiff, but if it doesn't I think it will be a good contest. England playing at home go into it as favourites, but I expect Sri Lanka to play well. Maharoof probably playing strengthens their team I reckon.
