Having gained immense popularity in the last year or so, the term ‘Bazball’ has been added to the Collins Dictionary. Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne, who had raised concerns around the concept to the extent of believing it could backfire for England during Ashes 2023, has explicitly dismissed the latest development surrounding it.
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Asked by Australian reporters in a video uploaded by cricket.com.au, Labuschagne refused to find any sense in the word; leave alone its addition to a dictionary. Apart from having no idea about it, he also provided a hilariously honest reaction.
“Oh man, that is garbage. I don’t know what that is, honestly,” Labuschagne said.
The origin of ‘Bazball’ dates back to 2022 after former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was appointed England’s head coach in Test cricket. Andrew Miller, ESPNcricinfo’s UK editor, was the one who had coined the word. For the unversed, McCullum is nicknamed Baz. Having said that, even England wicket-keeper batter Jonny Bairstow was clueless about the origin of the term.
As per Collins Dictionary, Bazball means “a style of Test cricket in which the batting side plays in a highly aggressive manner”. Even though the usage of the word increased around 400% from 2022 to 2023 Bazball couldn’t beat “AI” to become Collins’ Word of the Year.
Bazball Has Allured Mixed Response Thus Far
A high-risk approach, Bazball was always going to allure mixed responses depending on England’s results. More of a double-edged sword in terms of being perceived by both experts and fans, going all guns blazing from the word go in order to push for a victory has generated affirmative results for England as of now.
Speaking of criticism on the part of many high-profile names, former England batter Geoffrey Boycott had absolutely bashed McCullum for saying “it felt like a win” after losing first Ashes Test match against Australia earlier this year. Around the same time, legendary Australian captain Ricky Ponting had also questioned Bazball’s perseverance in an Ashes series.
However, English players have remained unmoved and unaffected by the denunciation. Instead, former captain Joe Root expressed regret for not implementing a similar style during his captaincy tenure. Former South African captain AB de Villiers, one of the most entertaining cricketers ever, also backed this bundle of entertainment by calling it “smart cricket“.
Pakistan, one of the victims of Bazball last year, took a leaf out of England’s book by playing aggressively in a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka post Ashes 2023. The influence was such that former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar invented another term called Pakball.
Set to be next in action during a tour of India next year, Bazball will face a litmus test in the subcontinent conditions. Yet to lose a series, all eyes will remain on whether England are able to maintain this streak or not.
