Sledging

I hope you will excuse the self indulgence, dear reader, but this post is a direct follow on from the previous post. There is a famous old quote that has been attributed to a number of people and it goes as follows:
"Football isn't a matter of life or death...it's more important than that!"
The same could be said of Cricket. Every few years that quote becomes reality when England play Australia for a trophy called the Ashes www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_ ashes if you are intrested in the details of how it came about. All you really need to know is that when these two countries play each other at any sport it is usually as hard a fought game as could possibly be.
Sledging has probably been around for as long as cricket has; my Collins English Dictionary describes it thus:

Sledging-to bait or insult an opponent especially in Cricket.

Sledging can be very amusing, the Aussies have it down to a fine art. Over recent years both countries have used the media to wind each other up long before they meet each other on the field of play. Even though the first test isn't until july 8th the next few months will see an endless back and forth of verbal sniping between both countries.
I think the news about Cricket being invented in Belgium is a classic piece of Aussie sledging; the very idea of Cricket not being invented in England would have every member of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club),which is the oldest Cricket club in the world, crying into their cucumber sandwiches!
It did not take me very long to find the following newspaper article:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23123078-23375,00.html
It's really worth reading.