By the Seventies the meaning had stretched from ungentlemanly behaviour towards a woman to verbal

By the Seventies the meaning had stretched from ungentlemanly behaviour towards a woman to verbal abuse intended to unsettle batsmen. At the same time Percy Sledge, the black American soul singer, had a hit with When a Man Loves a Woman, and Corling became known as Percy. The first use was when a player called Chris Corling swore in mixed company and was accused of being as subtle as a sledgehammer. If there is any danger of it being overheard by the stump microphone, experienced Test wicketkeepers place a foot over it. Perhaps it is time to break silence.The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket claims that the word sledging originated Down Under in the Sixties. He has spoken to the captains about it.It is difficult to define limits, however, until you know what players really say, and sledging is an element in the game that remains a mystery to most spectators. W G Grace was a sledger, they say, as if that automatically validates it.

But the scenes at Lord's persuaded the match referee, the South African Peter Van Der Merwe, to intervene "There are limits," he says. New Zealanders also reminded Thorpe of a brief affair he was alleged to have had in Auckland when England last toured there, which had set off a domestic crisis The intention is to break his concentration. Is that gamesmanship or abuse? It is certainly sledging.Cricketers say that sledging has always been part of the game. But reports from on the field suggest that it was Thorpe who started it. Thorpe, a cocky figure who assumes an air of superiority especially against a side like New Zealand, came in, promptly hit Cairns to the boundary and said to him: "You're in the big boys' game now." When Cairns's slower ball bamboozled Thorpe a few balls later, he raced down the pitch shouting: "Who's playing with the big boys now?" The participants describe this as gamesmanship. But there is more to it than that.

Take the episode at Lord's when Cairns lingered in front of Graham Thorpe and was much criticised for his actions. From beyond the boundary the usual reaction is that sledging like this "isn't cricket". This is sledging, and television draws attention to it, but television does not tell even half the story. CHRIS CAIRNS'S glare is not a pretty sight. The mouth moves and you know he is not talking about the weather. It's great to be involved when it counts."Always intense about cricket, Holloway is more settled and relaxed this season with his game - "I don't try and emulate anyone else now" - but as a keen surfer he is enjoying riding the wave of victories that his performances have helped bring.. We all have a role to play when batting and by me batting through it gives us a great balance.

The key is to try and think what the other captain wants, and often that is a couple of quick wickets," he said. "So if I don't get out and keep playing the ball into the gaps, then we are going to win more often than not."Some of the others like Mike Burns, Marcus Trescothick and Jamie Cox play brilliant attacking innings but that isn't my job I'm there to see us through and I love the buzz of doing it. In the NatWest he averages an even 100, and overall in his 11 one-day innings he has scored one century and six half-centuries."The boys know that I'm going to stay there until the end if I can and I think it helps them. Holloway has 436 runs in eight innings at an average of over 87 in the National League and importantly was undefeated on three occasions. Runs and shots mean nothing without wins."With only a solitary defeat in all one-day cricket thus far, Somerset must be doing something right and for once the figures tell the story.