Cricket's vocabulary hides a mock funeral, a car logo and class war
Cricket's most famous trophy began as a joke obituary. In 1882, after Australia beat England on English soil for the first time, The Sporting Times announced that English cricket had died and its ashes would go to Australia. England's next tour was billed as a quest to win them back, and a tiny terracotta urn followed.
Melbourne women presented that urn to the England captain Ivo Bligh during the 1882 to 1883 tour, and it is said to hold the burnt remains of one or two bails. Much of the game's language carries similar backstories, which is why outsiders often find it arcane or comic. Four consecutive ducks, or two pairs back to back, earn the nickname Audi, after the German carmaker's logo of four linked rings.
Some terms record social history. For centuries English cricket formally split players into amateurs, called gentlemen, and professionals, called players. Gentlemen were upper class, typically educated privately or at Oxford and Cambridge, and could claim expenses but no wages; players were working men paid to play. County captains were always amateurs, and an annual Gentlemen versus Players fixture set the classes against each other. The distinction faded early in the 20th century and was formally scrapped in 1962.
Other words are plainly inaccurate. A side is described as all out once ten of its eleven batters are dismissed, even though one always remains not out. Umpires cannot give a batter out, however obvious the dismissal, unless the fielding side asks, usually with a shout of howzat, a squashed version of how's that. Clearly bowled or caught batters normally walk off without waiting.
Spin bowling has its own lexicon of deception. Giving the ball air means tossing it higher so the batter misjudges its length. An arm ball looks like a finger spinner's normal delivery but refuses to turn, travelling straight along the line of the bowling arm. At the crude end sits the slog across the line, played with little footwork in a motion likened to swinging a scythe, which sends the ball toward cow corner and sometimes gouges the pitch.
Source: Glossary of cricket terms
