Glenn McGrath : I have been sledged by Sachin Tendulkar

01/21/2017

Aussie bowling great Glenn McGrath has revealed that he has faced sledging from Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar during his playing career. The 46-year-old went on to claim that every team in the world uses sledging, but it only makes it to the news when the Australians do so.

Every team in the world sledges. But when the Aussies do it, it makes news.

McGrath

“I have been sledged by Sachin Tendulkar. Every team in the world sledges. But when the Aussies do it, it makes news. When the other teams sledge against us, we keep quiet. The moment the Australians are at it, the others are quick to complain. The Australian way is very upfront. We play our cricket with a lot of passion. We say a few things on the field but all is forgotten as we walk off it. It’s a part of Australian culture,” Glenn McGrath revealed while at the Madras School of Economics on Friday, reported the Hindu.

He went on to state that former Australian captain Steve Waugh used to call it “gamesmanship”.

When asked to name the biggest sledger in the Australian team he was part of, McGrath replied, “Matthew Hayden was probably the worst. But he was nicely hidden, fielding at gully.”

Going on to share his thoughts about the two best batsmen he had bowled to during his career, McGrath said that West Indies legend Brian Lara was a more difficult batsman to bowl to than Sachin Tendulkar. He said, “You could tie down Sachin, contain him with good deliveries. It was hard to do that with Lara, very difficult to contain him.”

McGrath, who holds the record for the highest number of Test wickets by a pacer, also expressed his concern regarding modern day cricket pitches calling them too batsman-friendly.

“This is one of the main reasons teams struggle abroad. They are playing on similar wickets.

“In my days, the tracks in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide — they were all different. There was pace and bounce at Perth and Brisbane, while the spinners would come into play more at Melbourne and Sydney. Now, all that has changed. All the surfaces favour the batsmen, are similar in nature,” he said.

McGrath felt that the “drop-in” pitches have made matters worse. “A normal wicket deteriorates gradually and we can see cracks develop on the fourth or fifth day. But with drop-in pitches, the surface on the final day behaves like [it does] on day two or three,” he explained.

Speaking about modern day batsmen, McGrath felt that the current players lack the patience to build an innings under the trying conditions of Test cricket and that they are “far too aggressive”.

The batsmen are not prepared to bat through the tough periods of play, not prepared to do the difficult job of grinding it out.

McGrath

“The batsmen are not prepared to bat through the tough periods of play, not prepared to do the difficult job of grinding it out. They are trying to play too many shots, their defensive play is not good enough.”

“They are not prepared to adapt. They are far too aggressive,” McGrath said.

When asked about the most intelligent cricketer he has seen over the years, McGrath replied, “It would be Shane Warne, the best Test captain Australia never had. Warnie read the game very well, was a showman and loved the big moments.”

He also went onto add, “Allan Border built the team in very tough times, Mark Taylor, very shrewd, wanted to win from the first ball, Steve Waugh wanted to crush opponents from the first delivery while Ricky Ponting, who had a hard act to follow, still did a very good job winning two World Cups. But the captain of my all-time best Australian XI would be Border.”

Glenn McGrath : I have been sledged by Sachin Tendulkar

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