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It was one of the words of the summer and now ‘Bazball’ has been officially recognised with its inclusion in the Collins online dictionary.
Defined as “a style of Test cricket in which the batting side attempts to gain the initiative by playing in a highly aggressive manner”, ‘Bazball’ was named after England Test head coach Brendon McCullum.
The New Zealander has encouraged his team to bat with no fear, play ambitious shots and rack up runs quickly since his appointment in May 2022.
Coined by ESPN Cricinfo journalist Andrew Miller based on McCullum’s nickname ‘Baz’, it has become a huge part of cricketing lexicon.
It has kept England fans entertained all summer long – even if the Ashes urn didn’t return to English shores.
As well as its addition to the Collins online dictionary, a decision Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne called “garbage”, Bazball was also on the shortlist for the 2023 Word of the Year award, losing out on the top prize to ‘AI’.
Other words shortlisted were canon event, debanking, deinfluencing, greedflation, nepo baby, semaglutide, ultraprocessed and Ulez.
Words are shortlisted by Collins by using a “20-billion-word database of language to monitor word usage and trends”.
“The words are taken from a huge range of sources of spoken and written English, including fiction and non-fiction, newspapers, websites, and social media, from all over the world,” Collins told BBC Sport.
“All of the words that emerge as part of this process are then considered for inclusion in future editions of the print dictionary. We publish updated editions of our dictionary regularly – it is a continual process and we pride ourselves on being current.”
Bazball will be added to the printed Collins Dictionary for the next edition.
