Kennedy, the ABC’s News Breakfast sports reporter, got it right with his conclusion decent cricket followers have had enough of the pathetic sledging epidemic; demanding that the sport’s administrators curtail it.

Lane, an ABC veteran sports broadcaster and journalist, now with Macquarie Radio, wrote: “Every Australian first-class cricketer, and a few English ones too, should read (Fairfax columnist) Andrew Webster’s piercing analysis of the sledging issue”.

Webster’s was a fine piece of analytical writing in which he aligned the findings of the State Coroner, Michael Barnes, into the death of cricketer Phillip Hughes in a State match in which Barnes was moved to touch on sledging as an “uncomfortable issue for Australian cricket”.

As Lane wrote: “That such (provocative on-field words that terrible day at the SCG) were spoken can be denied, or their relevance to what transpired dismissed, but the fact they were believable to the grieving family of a deceased cricketer emerged as the harsh reality”.

Webster’s column was of such strength that if Cricket Australia and its state bodies had any historical feel for the sport it would be made compulsory reading for every captain (from test level to village green standard), every coach and every parent with a son or daughter playing the sport.

Lane wrote that his commentary partner, former England off-spinner, John Embury, had not previously rushed to judgement on the Australian team but at Adelaide he finally did. “His fundamental point was that when on-field trouble breaks out in international cricket the common denominator tends to be Australia”. That’s fair assessment.

It is also not just journalists of the calibre of those quoted, but this column’s readers who have sent messages expressing concern. At a recent function, Johnny Hawke, one of the finest AFL footballers and coaches in the Riverina, and former representative cricketers suggested to the column sledging had now gone too far.

Hawke was a fine leader of men and young footballers; his sportsmanship of the highest order even though as a player, short and light in stature, he played it hard but fair. It is suggested his comments would be endorsed around our nation.

Johnny suggested a line must soon be drawn by the authorities about sledging. Interestingly, as Lane pointed out, the preamble to the current Laws of Cricket states: “The major responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play rests with the captains”. Even Australia’s current captain, Steve Smith, was unaware of that provision because after a recent sledging issue he told journalists he was comfortable with what his players had said and done but, he said, “I think the umpires and match referees are there to determine that”. CA and state bodies have a responsibility to ensure their captains and vice-captains not only know the Laws of Cricket but practice them. Certainly, our vice-captain, David Warner, could do with a few lessons about them while CA should implement a law here to ensure umpires and referees have much stronger laws available to invoke discipline on the field if captains cannot provide such leadership.