SUCH a shame. Durham cricketer Ben Stokes took some – nay, not a little – of the gilt off his colossal multi record-breaking double century for England against South Africa by mercilessly sledging his opponents’ comparable hero, Temba Bavuma, the first indigenous African Test batsman, who scored his maiden hundred.

The worst of Stokes’ sledging was of the crudest kind. So crude that this newspaper forbore to print it. It followed a Bavuma nick for four. “Lucky blighter” might have been an insult from the time of WG Grace. “Jammy bugger” might have crossed Fred Trueman’s lips. But Stokes snarled at Bavuma: “You are absolute ****.”

It’s true that when Bavuma reached his century Stokes was among the first England players to shake his hand. Does that make amends? Only partially. For it’s difficult not to believe that had Bavuma been dismissed for less than a century he would have departed uncongratulated.

According to Scyld Berry, cricket correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, Bavuma, 25, was sledged by England “as soon as he had a settled”. Berry added: “The point is that England have always greeted young opponents the same way: do not bother sledging if they are not any good, but give them heaps if they look as though they are going to make it.”

Really? Always? I find it hard to think this was the case when Hutton and Compton v Lindwall and Miller symbolised Ashes rivalry. I never witnessed serious evidence of it in years of spectating during the Botham/Boycott v Lillee/Thomson era. If indeed it was rife I begin to regret my lifelong devotion to cricket – certainly to its first-class form, since respecting, rather than rubbishing, opponents was how I was taught to appreciate, and play, the game.

But perhaps the saddest aspect of the Stokes sledging incident was the reaction of Bavuma. Of his tormentor, he said: “He is a tough competitor and he did come hard. [But] everything was in the spirit of the game.” This suggests that Bavuma himself accepts sledging as part of cricket. Maybe, in his turn, he will do it – depressing.

Plainly, concepts of fair play and ‘sportsmanship’ are ancient hat. So let’s abandon this romantic tack in favour of straight cricket. Apart from ‘retired’ and ‘timed out’ there are nine legal ways a batsman may be dismissed. Any side that needs to add sledging to the options, especially for an emerging young player, can’t be up to much, can it?

LITTERING in Britain is a national disgrace. But, ahead of the Queen’s 90th birthday, there is to be a Clean for the Queen campaign. Its strongest feature looks likely to be raising the minimum and maximum fines by £50 – respectively to £100 and £150.

Since few litter louts are caught – waste of time. There are only two solutions. 1. The Singapore deterrent – amputations; one or two would be sufficient. 2. Doing nothing, until there is so much rubbish that everyone recognises the need to remove it – and create no more. The first option must be ruled out. As for the second – well, it generally takes a crisis to achieve action on the environment: the Clean Air Act of 1956 came only because thousands died in a smog of 1952.