Gentleman's game? Cricket's bickering stars are right down there with the football boys!

The last couple of months have seen the reputation of cricket take a bit of a beating, thanks to the on and off-field confrontations between Australian and Indian players and officials.

But the contention that modern cricketers have undermined the superior moral standing of the game does not stand up to close scrutiny. Claims that the bickering that is prevalent on the field, and feeds tabloid media around the world, is reducing cricket to the same level as – shock, horror – football is offensive, and not just to football fans and players.

There is a perception that cricket is a gentleman’s game, that cricketers should adhere to higher standards of behaviour than their counterparts from more 'common' sports such as football. The same silly notion is applied to rugby union and it is unfounded, unfair and downright silly.

Historically, cricket is a commoner’s game. Sure, it was hijacked by the aristocracy and upper classes during the 19th century but, at its heart, it is a game for everyone. Its quaint traditions – the white clothing, breaking for tea and the eccentric rules  - belie the fact that it is now played by professional athletes possessed of the same human frailties as everyone else.

We have a tendency to romanticise the past and believe that things were different in times gone by. The superficial things were all there – the applauding of centuries, the occasional 'walkers' – but what was missing was the intense media scrutiny, the stump microphones, the video replays.

And so the myth developed. But, what then of bodyline? Was Douglas Jardine’s instruction to bowl fast, short-pitched deliveries at the heads of Australian batsmen the action of a gentleman? No matter what fast bowlers will tell you, the purpose of the bouncer is to hurt the batsman, or have him sacrifice his wicket to avoid the pain.

Going back even further, arguably the game’s second most famous individual, WG Grace, was an out-and-out cheat. He did it with a grin and was considered a bit of a scallywag, but if he could get away with it, he did.

The list of shonky and/or overly aggressive players is endless. England’s John Lever used Vaseline to tamper with the ball, Hansie Cronje was convicted of match fixing, Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad stood toe-to-toe ready to have a stoush and now we hear almost everything that is said on the field. Technology has just served to bring us closer to the game and allowed us an insight into what has been happening for decades.

The thing that has changed is that no longer does what happens on the field, stay on the field. Whether or not this is a good thing or not is an interesting debating point, but the bottom line is we need to live with it and maybe adjust the lofty image that we have manufactured of what is, after all, just a game.

Those who claim that the game has deteriorated argue that, like any workplace, sledging or other 'ungentlemanly' behaviour should just be outlawed and everything would be solved.  After all, it isn’t acceptable in the council offices or on the production line or in a call centre where most of us work, so why should it be acceptable on the cricket field – the cricketer's workplace.

While this is a quant ideal, most of us don’t work in front of a live crowd of 70,000 people or in front of a TV audience of hundreds of millions. Nor does the job that most of us do carry the weight of expectation of an entire nation. Nor do we suffer public humiliation if we misfile a W24-91A form. The stakes are considerably higher when you play for your country.

Jardine himself summed it up by describing the game thus: "Cricket is battle and service and sport and art" note where sport comes in that statement. It’s not your average workplace, it is a battleground and the rules are very much different.