‘Bazball’ has made its way to the Collins dictionary in recognition to the bold, risk-taking style of play adopted by the England men’s cricket team under red-ball coach Brendon McCullum.
The term was coined after former New Zealand captain and opener MCcCullum, who is popularly known as ‘Baz’, took over the reigns as England’s Test coach in May 2022.
The term since has been used widely, especially during this year’s Ashes series, where England rallied from 0-2 to draw the series 2-2.
Listed as a noun, Bazball is described “a style of Test cricket in which the batting side attempts to gain the initiative by playing in a highly aggressive manner,” in the dictionary.
Its origin is noted as “C21: after Brendon McCullum, known as Baz (born 1981), New Zealand cricketer and coach.”
However, McCullum is not a fan of the term.
“I don’t have any idea what “Bazball” is. I don’t really like that silly term that people are throwing out there,” he had said last year.
When asked about the inclusion of the term in the dictionary, Australian cricketer Marnus Labuschagne hilariously replied “Oh man that is garbage. I don’t know what that is honestly. I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said in a video posted by cricket.com.au.
Bazball was one of Collins’ 10 words of the year and was also shortlisted for the Word of the Year but lost out to AI (artificial intelligence).
It was also named by Harper Collins as one of the 10 most significant new words of the year.
While the word Bazball has already been added to the online version of the dictionary, it will be included in the next edition of the physical dictionary.
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