Language & (Even Odder) Cricket

Re Jerry's and Shirley's postings:

Not a British cricketer. A South African. Brian McMillan, a famous
international all-rounder, a  larger-than-life-size big-hitting
batsman, cunning bowler and expert fielder (with hands the size of
dinner plates). 

Apparently there's some sort of delivery of a cricket ball, one which
only bounces very low and is therefore very difficult to hit, called
(in S. Africa; not, so far as I know, in Britain) a coolie-crawler. He
was heard to use the term and has been threatened with being banned
from cricket unless he makes a public apology. 

So far, as I understand it, he's refusing, saying What about folks who
use the terms Chinaman (another sort of bowling delivery in cricket)
or Whitewash (when one side beats another and wins ALL the games)? -
both of which, incidentally, are used, I think, wherever cricket is
played, so if they WERE banned you'd end up with either a lot of
tongue-tied cricketers or a lot of banned ones.

 Indeed, as a British-Empire period style of game, cricket's probably
got quite a lot of that sort of terminology lurking in its private
language, which the PC Pundits will now be alerted to, so I suspect we
can expect a lot more such stories over the coming months. 

Stay tuned. Should be fun, if you don't take it too seriously. Yes, I
know, some people will. Heighho.
Tim Longville
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