Beyond the boundaries of humour: Disabled cricketers’ experiences of sledging

Normalised within the social fabric of cricket, sledging is a form of gamesship where players aim verbal jousts at one another in order to gain a competitive advantage. Both intimidatory and humorous, existing research into sledging has focused on non-disabled cricketers without considering the experiences of those that do not match this corporeal norm. Accordingly, in this paper we offer the first exploration of sledging as experienced by disabled cricketers and how it contributes to disablism and the social ordering of disabled sporting bodies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 elite players (21 male, 1 female) with physical (12) and intellectual impairments (5) and d/Deafness (5) who compete in non-disabled, impairment-specific and pan-disability cricket. Framed by theories of humour and disability studies, an abductive analytical approach to analysis was undertaken revealing five themes – sledging as the norm, inclusive humour, gamesship, disablism and subversion . Findings show how sledging offers a unique lens to explore disabled peoples experiences of cricket. While facilitating inclusion and belonging, sledging is however often euphemistically used to mask discriminatory behaviours. In particular, d/Deaf and learning disability players were subjected to more disturbing forms of disablism than physical disability players. Safeguarding disabled cricketers and strategies for inclusion are discussed.