Right now, the cricket world is abuzz because the series between the English and Indian women’s cricket teams finished with an Indian bowler doing a “Mankad,” on an English batter at the non striker’s end. That is, after running in to bowl, she stopped and knocked the bails off instead. Match over. India wins. A series clean sweep.
There was hell to pay, with the usual endless outraged discussion as to whether it was sporting. The Mankad is named for Indian bowler Vinoo Mankad, who made this very action famous on the 1947/48 tour of Australia when dismissing Bill Brown twice. What interests me is that all these years on, the name of Mankad lives on in cricket because of that one specific incident.
For fun, let’s look at other sporting people/entities who have entered the language because of their actions.
The Fosbury Flop. Prior to the literal ascension of this innovative American high-jumper from Oregon, the accepted technique for getting over the bar was to do a scissor-kick, or the straddle method, going over face-down. From the age of 16 onwards, though, Fosbury developed the method of going over back first, and kicking your feet up before they got to the bar. It worked, he won gold at the 1968 Olympics, and the Fosbury flop is now the way to do the high jump.
The Ali shuffle. A boxer with fists flying so fast you could barely see them is one thing. But what about a boxer whose feet were also moving so fast you could barely keep track? That was Muhammad Ali in the 1960s, such a blur of energy and movement his opponents never knew where he’d be next, where the next hit would come from. The fans loved it, his opponents not so much. But for sporting theatre, it was superb. Cue Muhammad to Howard Cosell, before the “Thrilla in Manila”: “You tell him, I’ll be dancin’ . . . I’ll be DANCIN’!”
The Cruyff turn. I never heard of this one before a response came in to a query I put on Twitter. Named for a Dutch football legend, Johan Cruyff, it is a mesmerising dummy move whereby, while in control of the ball with your back to your opponent, you make it look like you’re about to pass, only to drag the ball behind you and go the other way into space. If you get it right, shortly thereafter someone high in the stands will be shouting into a microphone GOOOOOOOAL!
David Campese mesmerises the Barbarians during a 1992 Test match.Credit:Getty
The Campese goosestep. Just where David Campese developed his famous goosestep is unclear, but it was mesmerising. At full tilt down the wing for most of the 1980s, Campo would be tearing along and, just as the defence closed in on him, would kick one foot high which changed his speed and left the tacklers more often than not clutching at thin air as the crowd roared.
Bend it like Beckham. To hit the ball in such a manner that it curves around the goalkeeper, of course named for the iconic Englishman, David Beckham who was rather good at it.
Doing a Bradbury. We all remember our own Stephen Bradbury winning a gold medal in the Winter Olympic Games at Salt Lake City in 2002, when all the competitors in front of him fell over in the final 50 metres. From that time, “doing a Bradbury” has meant triumphing, against the odds, in large part because of the misfortune of your competitors. (And, by the way, one of my favourite tweets of all time was in January 2020, when @ballparkmusic posted: “Just heard the airline page Steven Bradbury. He’s late to board his flight, but we all know he’s gonna f**kin’ make it.”
A Garry Owen. Often used in rugby union and league to describe an up-and-under, it was actually perfected by the Garryowen Rugby Club in Ireland in the 1920s. Despite not being named for a person, I include it because these days it must be close to being called a “Nathan Cleary”. Has anyone ever put the ball higher than the Panthers five-eighth, to catch more wind, to come down swirling and whirling on the poor bastard waiting below – expected to catch it even while hearing the thundering hooves of the men of Penrith men about to smash him?
Steven does a Bradbury to win Australia’s first Winter Olympics gold medal.Credit:Stephen Munday
Now, let’s widen it further from just specific actions.
Doing an Edgar Britt. Britt was an Australian jockey who made his fame in Britain, and his name was popularised by rhyming slang. As to what it rhymes with, don’t ask. Much more acceptable is “your Wally Grout,” as in “your shout”, named for the great Australian wicketkeeper in the Bill Lawry years.
Rhyming slang also gave us “having a Barry Crocker,” which has become synonymous in sport with “having a shocker.” It was no reflection on Crocker himself, it is just that the rhyme worked. Meanwhile, in another crossover of the names of famous people coming into sports terminology, a “Michelle” – short for “Michelle Pfeiffer” – has become cricket terminology for getting five wickets in an innings, as in a five-for, five-fer, Pfeiffer! For the record, my Missus interviewed Pfeiffer last year and when she brought that to the actress’s attention, she was thrilled and honoured, having never heard it.
The Barassi Line. An imaginary line across Australia, it was named for the great Ron Barassi and invented by historian Ian Turner who first used it in 1978 to delineate that part of the country where Aussie Rules is dominant from where rugby league and rugby union hold sway. Very broadly, the Barassi Line goes from the coastal border of Victoria and Queensland to the eastern coastal border of Queensland and the Northern Territory. Or at least it used to. These days, I suspect the whole Barassi Line has shifted to the north-east. They’re coming for us.
The horse they called Big Red still resonates with Australians almost a century on.Credit:Charles Daniel Pratt
A heart as big as Phar Lap. Nearly a century on, that reference to Australia’s most beloved racehorse remains part of the vernacular.
A drongo. I never knew this either, but Drongo was an Australian racehorse of the 1920s, that never accomplished anything, and mostly finished last. Sadly Drongo, who indeed once contested a Melbourne Cup, retired the year before Phar Lap was born – it would have been a lovely bit of historical symmetry if they could have raced together just once.
Bradmanesque. The phrase speaks for itself. An innings or sporting feat “of Bradmanesque” quality is one so extraordinary, so out of the box, it can be compared to the feats of the GOAT of cricket, Sir Donald Bradman.
For the record, Sir Donald defended Mankad himself, noting in his biography, “For the life of me, I can’t understand why [the press] questioned his sportsmanship. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not, why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early, the non-striker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage.”
We’re done.
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