'Oh Man, That's Garbage': Marnus Labuschagne Not Impressed With Bazball's Inclusion in Dictionary

England Test team’s aggressive brand of cricket has been popularised as ‘Bazball’.

While it is already popular among cricket enthusiasts, the term has now received a seal of approval from the Collins Dictionary to become an official word.

The move, however, did not go down well with several people in the global cricket fraternity, with Aussie batter Marnus Labuschagne being one of the critics.

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Ahead of Australia’s big-ticket ODI World Cup game against England, Labuschagne was informed about Bazball being added to the Collins Dictionary and the cricketer seemed quite unimpressed with the move.

During a media interaction, Labuschagne was asked about his view on the topic.

The 29-year-old reacted with a sarcastic smile and replied, “Oh man, that is garbage. I don’t know what that is, honestly. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

A clip of the conversation was dropped on the official X account of cricket.com.au.

Brendon McCullum took over the helm as the coach of the England Test team in May 2022. Upon his arrival, the Three Lions, under the captaincy of Ben Stokes, started playing with an aggressive approach, which was hardly seen in red-ball cricket earlier.

Going by McCullum’s nickname ‘Baz’, the strategy was branded as Bazball.

It is now one of Collins Dictionary’s new words of the year. The term was also shortlisted as the Word of the Year but eventually lost to Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is a fresh addition to the lexicon as well.

Harper Collins has also recognised Bazball as one of the most significant new words of the year.

As defined in the online edition of the Collins Dictionary, Bazball is a noun, meaning ‘a Test cricket style where the batting side aims to seize the initiative by playing in an exceptionally aggressive manner’.

Looking at England’s performance in the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup, the reigning champions are yet to perform as per their stature in the tournament.

The Jos Buttler-led side has managed just one win in six games.

With two points to their name, England are reeling at the bottom of the table and are all but out of the knockout race.

However, they will look to bounce back in the remaining games. Following the game against Australia on November 4, England are scheduled to play the Netherlands and Pakistan in the subsequent fixtures.