Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 29, 2017 8:30:59 GMT
Ben Stokes and the 'F' Word
_____________________________________
Ben Stokes swears when playing cricket. His favourite expletive is F*ck! Some might say it is an expression of passion. Others the articulation of a foul-mouthed teenager who hasn’t grown up. No surprise therefore that our English 'Dennis the Menace' is in trouble again with the cricketing authorities.
On Saturday, when bowling at Headingley in the 101st Test against the West Indies, his “passion” reared its head and another F*ck word came spewing from his Northerner’s gob. He was reprimanded by on-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and S Ravi. This was followed by off-field Umps Marais Erasmus and Nick Cook, as a second offence occurred. The F*ck word had been picked up by the SKY stump mic. Double Trouble for our tattooed Phoenix.
His “obscene, offensive and insulting language” caused an additional one demerit point to his already overladen disciplinary record which is now just one point away from a ban. One more F*ck and we may not see Stokes playing in an Ashes Test come late this year.
An ICC statement confirmed Stokes has three demerit points. If a player reaches four or more within a 24-month period, they will be converted into suspension points.The two points Stokes picked up before Saturday came on 30 October 2016 and 26 November 2016. Therefore, the first offence will be wiped from his record on 30 October 2018, while the second will be expunged on 26 November 2018. It sounds rather like a motoring offence.
This wrap across the knuckles caused former England Captain, Michael Vaughan, to froth at the mouth. “I thought Rabada being banned was petty. In international sport you don't play to swear but under the heat of the battle the odd word may come out. If it is the stump mic that costs him a point, and the loss of a Test match, then what is better for the game? Just turn the stump mic off.”
Vaughan was supported by James Taylor, he of the heart condition. “Personally, I don't care about it but some people clearly do. There is an Ashes Test match around the corner and England can't afford to lose him. One more breach and Stokes will lose a Test.
“I think it is pathetic and petty. It is great that the stump mic is on as it gives the public insight but it shouldn't be used to catch people out. Yes, he shouldn't be swearing, but that is passion in the heat of the moment and you want to see Ben Stokes express himself."
The BBC Website where these quotes emitted, I am told, had difficulty finding someone to disagree, so is the displeasure of the stump mic from present and former international cricketers.
The surprising choice was Graeme Swann. “I would never have had a problem when I was playing but now as a father, trying to bring up kids and get them into the game, there is no place for it. The laws are there. You can scream and shout but don't swear.” Easier said than done in “the heat of the battle”.
Sledging is part of cricket and swearing a major weapon. What the stump mic has done is bring the privacy of the cricket pitch into the prim homes of the watching public. In recent years, there have been growing examples. Perhaps, the most famous being Aussie Captain Michael Clarke’s comments during the 2013/14 Ashes, when he shouted to Jimmy Anderson during the 1st Test at The Gabba, “Get ready for a broken f*cking arm!” Clarke was merely fined 20% of his match fee.
What cricket shows again and again is the disparity between “real life” and the need to remain a “gentleman’s game”. It is hypocrisy at its worst. The idea that swearing is an expression of today’s nihilistic world is utter nonsense. Cricket abuse has been around since the 18th century when match-fixing was the norm.
This disparity is clearly shown on Twitter.
Guardian journalist Leo Benedictus wrote a piece in February 2014 asking the question: ‘What are the most popular swear words on Twitter?’ Amazingly, after very detailed research by the ‘Ohio Wright State University’ it was proven that one in every 13 tweets contains a rude word. Any guesses what the most popular one is?
Yep, you’ve guessed it. F*ck! In fact, 34.7% of all the swearwords used in a sample of 51m tweets, used the ‘F’ word.
In comparison, the second and third most popular swearwords – “sh*t" and “a*s" – accounted for 15.0% and 14.5% respectively, while other highlights included “b*tch" (10.3%), "hell" (4.5%), "whore" (1.8%), “d*ck" (1.7%), “p*ss" (1.5%) and "pussy" (1.2%). Between them, the top seven make up 90.6% of all the swearing on Twitter. In daily life, it is thought that between 0.5% and 0.7% of the words we use are swearwords, but the proportion on the site is roughly twice this, at 1.15%.
Benedictus explains, “Intriguingly, swearing also seems to be an early-week thing. Tweets become more and more likely to contain a swearword as the day progresses, perhaps reflecting the accumulation of things we have to swear about, and peak profanity is reached between midnight and 1.30am, suggesting that people who are awake at that time are, let's say, the least inhibited. While, the weekends are consistently the least sweary days of the week."
He continues, “Women are more likely to swear when talking to women, while men (who swear more overall) are much more likely to swear when talking to other men. Interestingly, men and women were also more likely than the other to use their own gender's insults. Women, for instance, were the main advocates of “b*tch" and "slut" – and were still more likely to use the terms in all-female conversations.” Stokes joins the normal world of spewing expletives. Yet, cricket must be seen to be above all this conventional and Social Media “foul-mouthed behaviour.”
So, what can “The Phoenix” do to save himself from the ignominy of missing an Ashes Test?
An obvious step is to send our Ben to a hypnotherapist. A couple of sessions should retrain his subconscious to change the F*ck word to something acceptable like “Feck!” Most famously used in the comedy series Father Ted. Another increasingly used derivative is “Frigging!” Perhaps, the answer is to come up with a list of new swearwords. Certainly, there are few as powerful as C*nt. Another randomly sprinkled across Twitter. But I suggest one such new expletive. RATS! A Charlie Brown favourite and one I used as a teenager to avoid a cuff across the ear. On the other hand, it's about as limp and powerless as a pink ball.
_____________________________________
Ben Stokes swears when playing cricket. His favourite expletive is F*ck! Some might say it is an expression of passion. Others the articulation of a foul-mouthed teenager who hasn’t grown up. No surprise therefore that our English 'Dennis the Menace' is in trouble again with the cricketing authorities.
On Saturday, when bowling at Headingley in the 101st Test against the West Indies, his “passion” reared its head and another F*ck word came spewing from his Northerner’s gob. He was reprimanded by on-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and S Ravi. This was followed by off-field Umps Marais Erasmus and Nick Cook, as a second offence occurred. The F*ck word had been picked up by the SKY stump mic. Double Trouble for our tattooed Phoenix.
His “obscene, offensive and insulting language” caused an additional one demerit point to his already overladen disciplinary record which is now just one point away from a ban. One more F*ck and we may not see Stokes playing in an Ashes Test come late this year.
An ICC statement confirmed Stokes has three demerit points. If a player reaches four or more within a 24-month period, they will be converted into suspension points.The two points Stokes picked up before Saturday came on 30 October 2016 and 26 November 2016. Therefore, the first offence will be wiped from his record on 30 October 2018, while the second will be expunged on 26 November 2018. It sounds rather like a motoring offence.
This wrap across the knuckles caused former England Captain, Michael Vaughan, to froth at the mouth. “I thought Rabada being banned was petty. In international sport you don't play to swear but under the heat of the battle the odd word may come out. If it is the stump mic that costs him a point, and the loss of a Test match, then what is better for the game? Just turn the stump mic off.”
Vaughan was supported by James Taylor, he of the heart condition. “Personally, I don't care about it but some people clearly do. There is an Ashes Test match around the corner and England can't afford to lose him. One more breach and Stokes will lose a Test.
“I think it is pathetic and petty. It is great that the stump mic is on as it gives the public insight but it shouldn't be used to catch people out. Yes, he shouldn't be swearing, but that is passion in the heat of the moment and you want to see Ben Stokes express himself."
The BBC Website where these quotes emitted, I am told, had difficulty finding someone to disagree, so is the displeasure of the stump mic from present and former international cricketers.
The surprising choice was Graeme Swann. “I would never have had a problem when I was playing but now as a father, trying to bring up kids and get them into the game, there is no place for it. The laws are there. You can scream and shout but don't swear.” Easier said than done in “the heat of the battle”.
Sledging is part of cricket and swearing a major weapon. What the stump mic has done is bring the privacy of the cricket pitch into the prim homes of the watching public. In recent years, there have been growing examples. Perhaps, the most famous being Aussie Captain Michael Clarke’s comments during the 2013/14 Ashes, when he shouted to Jimmy Anderson during the 1st Test at The Gabba, “Get ready for a broken f*cking arm!” Clarke was merely fined 20% of his match fee.
What cricket shows again and again is the disparity between “real life” and the need to remain a “gentleman’s game”. It is hypocrisy at its worst. The idea that swearing is an expression of today’s nihilistic world is utter nonsense. Cricket abuse has been around since the 18th century when match-fixing was the norm.
This disparity is clearly shown on Twitter.
Guardian journalist Leo Benedictus wrote a piece in February 2014 asking the question: ‘What are the most popular swear words on Twitter?’ Amazingly, after very detailed research by the ‘Ohio Wright State University’ it was proven that one in every 13 tweets contains a rude word. Any guesses what the most popular one is?
Yep, you’ve guessed it. F*ck! In fact, 34.7% of all the swearwords used in a sample of 51m tweets, used the ‘F’ word.
In comparison, the second and third most popular swearwords – “sh*t" and “a*s" – accounted for 15.0% and 14.5% respectively, while other highlights included “b*tch" (10.3%), "hell" (4.5%), "whore" (1.8%), “d*ck" (1.7%), “p*ss" (1.5%) and "pussy" (1.2%). Between them, the top seven make up 90.6% of all the swearing on Twitter. In daily life, it is thought that between 0.5% and 0.7% of the words we use are swearwords, but the proportion on the site is roughly twice this, at 1.15%.
Benedictus explains, “Intriguingly, swearing also seems to be an early-week thing. Tweets become more and more likely to contain a swearword as the day progresses, perhaps reflecting the accumulation of things we have to swear about, and peak profanity is reached between midnight and 1.30am, suggesting that people who are awake at that time are, let's say, the least inhibited. While, the weekends are consistently the least sweary days of the week."
He continues, “Women are more likely to swear when talking to women, while men (who swear more overall) are much more likely to swear when talking to other men. Interestingly, men and women were also more likely than the other to use their own gender's insults. Women, for instance, were the main advocates of “b*tch" and "slut" – and were still more likely to use the terms in all-female conversations.” Stokes joins the normal world of spewing expletives. Yet, cricket must be seen to be above all this conventional and Social Media “foul-mouthed behaviour.”
So, what can “The Phoenix” do to save himself from the ignominy of missing an Ashes Test?
An obvious step is to send our Ben to a hypnotherapist. A couple of sessions should retrain his subconscious to change the F*ck word to something acceptable like “Feck!” Most famously used in the comedy series Father Ted. Another increasingly used derivative is “Frigging!” Perhaps, the answer is to come up with a list of new swearwords. Certainly, there are few as powerful as C*nt. Another randomly sprinkled across Twitter. But I suggest one such new expletive. RATS! A Charlie Brown favourite and one I used as a teenager to avoid a cuff across the ear. On the other hand, it's about as limp and powerless as a pink ball.