Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tony Greig, Vinoo Mankad and other cricketers who made it to the cricket lexicon

There have been legends, and then, there have been those whose names become immortalised by getting their names etched in the lexicon of the sport. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at some names on which cricket terms have been named.

One does not need to explain the word Bradmanesque to a cricket lover: they understand the enormity of the number 99.94. However, despite the enormous stature of the man, the word has not really made it to the lexicon of cricket: it remains a mere metaphor.

While The Don did not make it to the list, some others have. Here is a list.

1. Bernard Bosanquet: Bosey / Bosie

Bosanquet is usually credited with the invention of the googly (albeit accidentally, as per his own admission). It took some time, but once the googly took off, it became a hit. Reggie Schwarz, an acquaintance, learned the art, and took it back to South Africa. By the time South Africa toured England in 1905-06, they had an army of four googly bowlers: Schwarz himself, Bertie Vogler, Gordon White, and the legendary Aubrey Faulkner.

What is relatively less known is the fact that a googly was also referred to as a Bosey or a Bosie after its inventor. The most iconic use of the term can be found in Arthur Mailey s 10 for 66 and All That: I found fresh hope in the thought that (Victor) Trumper had found Bosanquet, creator of the wrong un or bosie (which I think a better name), rather puzzling.

2. Sydney Barnes: Barnes Ball

While Barnes greatness is undeniable (many consider him the greatest bowler in history), it is relatively less known that the Barnes Ball used to be a quite famous phenomenon about a century back. Wisden described it as the leg-break delivered at pace and without rotation of the wrist.

Benny Green described it as well in A History of Cricket as one that pitched on the stumps between leg and middle, and then turned sharply to threaten the off-stump or find the edge of the bat . Sounds unplayable, does it not?

3. Ellis Puss Achong: Chinaman

As cricket folklore goes, it had all started at the Old Trafford Test of 1933. Douglas Jardine and Walter Robins were leading a spirited rescue operation when Achong (the first Test cricketer of Chinese origin) bowled a delivery that took Robins by complete surprise: as Robins stepped out to hit him, the ball spun back into him and went through his legs.

As Ivan Barrow whipped the bails off, a bemused Robins told umpire Joe Hardstaff snr: Fancy getting out to a bloody Chinaman! Learie Constantine, present at the ground, had apparently retorted with the question: You mean the bowler or the ball?

The name Chinaman stuck for left-arm wrist-spin. Decades later, Shehan Karunatilaka wrote a delightful book of the same name one that will go down as the best cricket books of all time.

4. Vinoo Mankad: Mankading

It is well-known that Mankad had run out Bill Brown as the latter had backed up too much in the Test at SCG. The relatively lesser known fact is that Mankad had done the same to Brown in a tour match against Australia XI at the same ground. Brown had a received a warning in the tour match, but not in the Test. Though the Australian media criticised Vinoo s act almost unanimously, Bradman himself wrote that it was scrupulously fair in A Farewell to Cricket.

However, Lord Harris, while leading Oxford University, had got a Cambridge University batsman Mankaded sometime in the 1870s, so it was not necessarily a Mankad invention . The term stuck, though.

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5. Keith Carmody: Carmody Field

Carmody led Western Australia in 1947-48. It was this season that his fast bowlers, Charlie Puckett and Kenneth Cumming, induced edges on a consistent basis but the ball flew through the various vacant regions, especially through slips. Carmody placed as many as eight fielders in a near-semicircle from gully to leg-gully.

Catches were seldom spilled thereafter. Western Australia clinched the Sheffield Shield that season. Since then numerous variations of the Carmody Field had been used.

6. Tony Greig: Greig Point

Apart from being one of the finest all-rounders in the history of English cricket, Greig was also an entertainer and a shrewd (and haughty at times) captain. He was also one of the initial recruits of Kerry Packer, and was the cricketing brain behind the entire World Series operation.

Greig was also an outstanding (often irritating for the batsman) fielder at silly point so much they often called the position Greig Point in the 1970s.

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7. Ashley Mallett: Three slips and a Mallett

Mallett was easily Australia s first quality off-spinner since World War II. He later became a reputed coach for spinners (he is usually credited with the discovery of Ajantha Mendis). He also penned biographies and ghosted autobiographies of Australian legends like Victor Trumper, Clarrie Grimmett, and Ian Chappell.

Additionally, Mallett was an outstanding fielder at gully to the extent that three slips and a Mallett became a common phrase in the 1970s.

8. Roger Twose: Rogers

Twose had almost lived up to his name when he scored four twos (and a duck) in five consecutive Test innings spread over a year and a half. His rather unusual surname gave birth to the word Rogers, typically used to describe the second XI for any cricket side.

9. Tillakaratne Dilshan: Dilscoop

Douglas Marillier had made the stroke over the wicket-keeper s head fashionable, but Dilshan took things a bit further: he started going down on his left knee, and scooping the ball in the same direction. Once connected properly, the poor keeper had no chance of stopping it.