Tim Paine, Shaun Marsh shed light on Australia’s love for sledging [Exclusive]

Tim Paine. (Photo Source: WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

The former cricketers of Australia are currently playing in the World Championship of Legends tournament. Australia have qualified for the playoffs and Pakistan are the other team, as India and the West Indies made it at the right time. Ahead of the next leg of the tournament, former Australia players, Shaun Marsh and Tim Paine were in conversation with CricTracker and the duo spilled the beans on Australian cricket.

Australia are known for their competitiveness and aggressive approach in the field. The team has won the most ICC titles, the latest being World Cup 2023 in India. Paine asserted that the sledging part comes when he gets bored in the field and admitted that there will not be anything similar in the WCL. On the other hand, Marsh opined that when teams like Australia and India tussle, things get too far and sledging becomes the only respite.

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“No sledging in this tournament. It’s been very nice. Personally, I just get bored very easily and I just talk a lot. It’s natural. I’m the same on and off the field. So, I’m not normally sledging or being too nasty. I just like to talk and try and interact with the batter and maybe try and distract them if I can by… by talking a bit of rubbish, to be honest. So very rarely is it very pointed or nasty. I just like to try and have a bit of fun. As I said, I get bored and Shaun will probably tell you whether I’m on the bus or in the team room, I tend to be talking and that doesn’t change when I go out on the field,” said Paine.

“Look, I don’t think there’s a hell of a lot of it. You know, a lot of the sledging has gone out of the game. Maybe the big tournaments, Australia, India, things can get heated out in the middle and… You’ll hear a bit of sledging, but there’s not a hell of a lot of it anymore,” Marsh added.

Here’s the video of Marsh and Paine’s conversation:

Australia have been on a winning fest in the ongoing WCL tournament with a sole loss in five games they have featured in. Their only loss came against Pakistan in their first game and since then they have tumbled every other opposition. Their biggest win in terms of margin came against South Africa as they won by a whopping margin of 104 runs. They will be clashing in the second semifinal against India on July 12.