David Leggat: Sledging ugly underside of a beautiful game

Australia's captain, Steven Smith, right, in the figurative sense, has an eminently slappable face. Photo / Brett Phibbs

So Bob Willis reckons things are getting nasty and personal in the verbal barbs flying during the Ashes series.

What planet has big Bob been on for the last few Ashes series — and not only the oldest of cricket's test rivalries, try Australia vs India recently.

The extremes of the sledging game have been an unsightly blight on the game for years.

The odd verbal jab is fine, call it the give and take of top international sport.

But Willis, the former test captain and fast bowler with the mop-top hairdo, claims he has heard "particularly personal" remarks directed by Australian players at their opponents.

Willis has called for the umpires to step in to sort out specially unpleasant exchanges.

You can forget captains doing what captains used to do.

The days when they would set a tone, and keep a check on their more egregious players, are long gone.

Indeed, some of cricket's current leaders are among those in the frontline of the slanging.

"Without going into any details, one of those individuals is [Jonny] Bairstow — I don't like the rumours I'm hearing about it and the Australians really do need to learn to behave themselves on the field," Willis said darkly.

Here's a thought to ponder.

Late last year, the New South Wales state coroner Michael Barnes oversaw the four-day hearing into the death of former Australian batsman Phillip Hughes.

Leave aside the findings — a tragic accident in a Sheffield Shield match when Hughes was struck behind an ear by a short ball and never regained consciousness — and focus on one paragraph from Barnes.

"Hopefully, the focus on this unsavoury aspect of the incident may cause those who claim to love the game to reflect upon whether the practice of sledging is worthy of its participants.

"An outsider is left to wonder why such a beautiful game would need such an ugly underside," he said.

Now we're seeing the ugliness in all its, er, glory.

It has to be said — and a friend of mine does, frequently — that Australia's captain, Steven Smith, in the figurative sense, has an eminently slappable face.

England probably wouldn't mind doing so either, after all his facial gymnastics as things were going wrong for him on the fourth day/night during the Adelaide test.

Australian opener David Warner talked about "war" and looking for "hatred" within himself for the opposition (he later realised he'd overstepped the mark); Nathan Lyon banged on about "ending careers"; and Bairstow copped plenty, primarily over his early-tour playful head butt of Australian opener Cameron Bancroft, but there are also whispers of a nastier aspect to the Bairstow treatment.

So many of the verbal exchanges are, frankly, puerile. But if true, the Aussies deserve complete condemnation. Then again, there's always a couple of sides to this sort of thing.

Smith and Root could lift the calibre of the contest for the last three tests.

But here's a weird view from Smith after the first test in Brisbane: "As I've said previously, there's a line we're not to cross and I've got no issues there. I think the umpires and match referees are there to determine that."

Surely it's up to the captain to set out the team's stall. Then again, he lost the plot late on the fourth day in Adelaide so how can he possibly be expected to lead by example.

For all the coroner's impressive words, don't expect much to change in Perth for the third test. These players are too far down a particular path in this series now.