As Aussies raise decibel level,KP says he’s OK with sledging

England batsman Kevin Pietersen says he’s comfortable with the levels of sledging in the current Ashes series as Australia turns to its old tactic of using verbal aggression to unsettle opponents. Pietersen told a news conference Wednesday there had been verbal clashes between players in the first three matches of the five-match series but “there’s nothing that’s been overboard.”

His comments followed an assertion from the head of the Australian Cricketer’s Association that Australia’s recent downturn in form was directly attributable to warnings to tone down its sledging after an acrimonious test against India at Sydney in 2008. Paul Marsh said opponents had exploited Australia’s caution but a more aggressive approach in the third Ashes test at Perth had produced Australia’s best win in years.Pietersen,who along with James Anderson had been the most verbal of England’s players in the series,told reporters on Wednesday the level of tension in the past three tests between England and Australia had been typical of an Ashes series. “You guys (the media) feed them some good lines,” Pietersen said. “They talk a lot. Nothing’s different. There’s not really any big chirpers or big sledgers,it’s just England versus Australia. It’s an Ashes series.“Blokes get a bit of red mist occasionally. You’re allowed to do that on both teams. You’re playing for a little urn. It’s historic. It’s huge. But there’s nothing that’s been overboard.”However Pietersen’s comments were contradicted by teammate Matt Prior who said in a regular newspaper column on Tuesday that the verbal send-off he received from Australia fast bowler Peter Siddle after his dismissal in Perth was like kicking a man when he’s down.“He got me out luckily,maybe,as the ball trickled off my body on to the stumps,but out still,” Prior wrote in The Independent. “As I left he said something which annoyed me. It doesn’t matter what he said but once you have dismissed somebody you have done the job on them.“There are not many boxing matches when a guy knocks someone out and then kicks him while he’s on the floor. That isn’t the way it works.”Siddle told a luncheon Wednesday that Prior had challenged him to a fight after the day’s play. At a later news conference he said some England players were only complaining about sledging because they lost. “We won the game. That’s why they’re making such a big deal of it,” he said.