Overview

• 'Bazball', a term to describe the aggressive cricketing style under England Head Coach Brendon McCullum, is recognized as one of the most influential words of 2023 by Collins dictionary.
• The term was first coined in 2022 by Andrew Miller, the UK editor at ESPNcricinfo, and witnessed a 400% increase in usage in 2023.
• The aggressive approach has been credited for a dramatic turnaround in England's cricket team performance, winning 13 out of 18 Test matches since McCullum's appointment as head coach in May 2022.
• The term 'Bazball' has transcended the sports world and began to allude to bold risk-taking efforts in other areas such as politics, with the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's strategy being referred to as a 'political Bazball'.
• Even though McCullum himself dismisses the term as trivializing the strategic thinking involved in their approach, 'Bazball' will now be included in the next print version of the Collins dictionary.