The summer of sledge Squaring up: Michael Clarke and A.B. de Villiers at the WACA on Friday. We'll do anything we can to unsettle them, but we know there's a line you can't cross. If you're going to dish it out, you've got to be prepared to take it. We'll play hard on the field, but we'll always get together for a beer at the end of the series. Sledging can lead to some uncomfortable situations as Michael Clarke learnt in 2013 with England's James Anderson. Expect all these lines to be dusted off this summer because if the hype is right, it will be the summer of the sledge. Australia and South Africa have recent history, even if Michael Clarke is sick of talking about it and Dale Steyn isn't allowed to. And there is always the potential for on-field eruptions to spill into the political sphere when India are in town, as they will be for four Tests and a one-day series before the World Cup. Already, an Australian cricketer has felt the need to defend himself against allegations of friendliness; Steve Smith redeemed himself in the eyes of his captain and country by asserting that he was not engaging in polite chit-chat with Pakistan batsman Azhar Ali in Abu Dhabi, but rather was having a crack at him. It was all an unfortunate misunderstanding. Is sledging any worse now than it has ever been? Do the blow-ups of the past year - Clarke and Jimmy Anderson at the Gabba, Anderson and India's Ravindra Jadeja at Trent Bridge, Clarke and Steyn in Cape Town - reflect genuine bad blood between countries that are supposed to have been brought closer together by melting pot Twenty20 leagues such as the IPL? Or is it all forgotten over a drink and a chat in the sheds? Ian Chappell believes the term "sledging" has its origins in a raging party held when NSW was playing South Australia in Adelaide in the '60s, and has nothing to do with on-field talk. When the party fizzled, one of the NSW players who swore in front of a woman was said to be as subtle as a sledgehammer. The Percy Sledge song, When a Man Loves a Woman, was in the charts and the player became "Percy," while swearing in front of a woman became sledging. It wasn't until World Series Cricket that the term was used to describe what happened on the field. Another version gets an airing in Allan Border's new book, Cricket As I See it. Border believes we have the former fast bowler of the '80s, Len Pascoe, to thank for sledging. Pascoe was "as mad as a cut snake with a ball in his hand, and would rant and rave and sledge even if he was the nicest bloke in the world off the field," he writes. John Benaud [former NSW captain and national selector] said, 'Lennie, as usual you're as subtle as a sledgehammer.' I think that's where it came from. There is a difference, most agree, between gamesmanship (chirping) and sledging (abuse), but where the line is often depends on where you come from. Border recalls that in his day, West Indies and Indian players didn't like being sworn at while he thought it was "the Australian way." India captain M.S. Dhoni made it clear he won't tolerate behaviour that "crosses the line" in England this year when team management went over the top of match referee David Boon to report Anderson, a renowned sledger, for shoving Jadeja in the corridor on the way to lunch. The episode, which wound up with the Anderson charge being thrown out and the ICC dismissing an appeal from India to intervene, showed that even among political allies (India, England and Australia are "besties" at the board table since the big three took control of world cricket) on-field skirmishes can escalate quickly. "International cricket is tough, competitive and uncompromising, but we must reiterate that there is no place in the game for the use of offensive language that is personally insulting of one player by another," said ICC chief executive Dave Richardson after the Anderson-Jadeja spat. It is imperative that all captains, players and coaches as well as umpires and referees are reminded of and do not shirk their responsibility to one another and to the game. Not all Australians believe you have to be at the opposition's throat to win, and many are dismayed that the tradition of a beer with the opposition, even at Sheffield Shield level - once compulsory - has in some cases been eroded. One Australian player sheepishly ducked down a back street for a clandestine burger with an opponent, worrying that it would be frowned upon to socialise with him during a Test series. "The whole thing is, you have to bleed green and gold to be competitive out there and I don't quite understand it," he said. You can still try your utmost and be friends with the opposition. It's a bit sad that it's going that way, but that's professionalism. Chappell was a famously hard-nosed captain, but he loathes "inane chatter" and thinks players should be reported for abuse. "Gamesmanship, I have no problem with," he says. For example, Shane Warne is bowling to Sourav Ganguly, who has let a few go. Sachin Tendulkar is at the non-striker's end. Warne tells Ganguly: "This crowd didn't come here to watch you let balls go, they came to see this little fella play his shots." Soon afterwards Ganguly comes down the track and tries to hit Warne out of the ground, and is stumped. Warne gets his man. Gamesmanship has been responsible for a lot of the humour that has been written about the game of cricket. But Chappell has warned before that if annoying and abusive chatter goes unchecked, it could lead to fisticuffs on the field. Relations between the Australians and South Africans, who we are asked to believe are so alike in personality (laid-back) and style of play (in-your-face) certainly deteriorated during the Test series in South Africa, and reportedly only one Proteas player (Robin Peterson) entered the Australian dressing room for a drink after Ryan Harris bowled the touring team to victory. The South Africans were preoccupied with sending off retiring captain Graeme Smith, but A.B. de Villiers has since fanned the tensions, first saying the Australians couldn't expect to be mates on the field if they unleashed personal abuse on it, and later suggesting Steyn had been disrespected. An inexplicable DRS reprieve for Vernon Philander as the Australians strained for victory in Cape Town directly preceded the confrontation between Clarke and Steyn, but there was also an undercurrent of resentment running throughout the series, with David Warner questioning the Proteas' methods of gaining reverse swing in the previous Test. Injured fast bowler James Pattinson, who sparred with Steyn until Clarke got involved, insists the Australians and South Africans still have plenty in common. We're very similar people, Australians and South Africans. We get along very well off the field. Well, I thought we did, anyway," he said. There's a bit of sledging that goes on, but that's the way both teams play. I didn't think anything much happened - I was right next to it - but maybe something else happened. It's been like that for ages, so I'm sure both teams are going to continue. It's 11 years since the altercation between Glenn McGrath and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the Caribbean, which prompted the Australian teams led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting to draft a players' code that allowed banter towards opponents but not abuse. That incident started with a puerile remark from McGrath, but Sarwan touched a nerve when he mentioned McGrath's wife, who was seriously ill. The Australian lost his temper. "That was a little bit different, if you take it within context, and I think the media like to build it up worse than it is," McGrath says now. You don't want to get personal, but you can have a bit of fun, too.