KARACHI: Sports slang can get confusing at times, especially for a non-sports person or if you’re watching a sport you don't particularly enjoy. But there's no way to stop commentators from using these words, mainly due to the interest they generate.
Here, we list some of the most amusing and odd sports terms so you can get ahead of the curve the next time you hear them during a game.
Agricultural shot
Despite what you'd think, this does not mean using a bat to dig up land for growing vegetables. Although it the idea isn't bad, when a batsman hits a ball in the game of cricket while digging up a chunk of the pitch with the bat, it is called an agricultural shot.
PHOTO: dreamaxess.comBye
More like the good byes, this cricket term, which most cricket fans are familiar with, is a term used for the runs scored when a ball does not hit the bat or any part of the batsman’s body. But unlike the conventional byes, this is a happy occasion for the batsman as he scores runs without even touching the ball.
PHOTO: news.bbc.co.ukDaisy-cutter
Much like the real daisy-cutters bombs, this term refers to the incident when the ball (both in cricket and football) is hit so powerfully that is seems like it’s moving a few millimetres above the ground despite touching the ground. Some people also refer to daisy-cutters in cricket as a ball which bounces more than once before reaching the batsman.
Remember Shaolin Soccer? PHOTO: www.boxofficeprophets.comDibbly-dobbly
Sounds like a character from Harry Potter, doesn’t it? Dibbly-dobbly is, in fact, a cricket term which refers to bowlers who bowl slow-medium pace deliveries and are as threatening as a sleeping panda -- ou wouldn’t want to wake them up and make them angry.
Donkey-drop
If you are not a dibbly-dobbly bowler but merely a person who can throw the ball on a bounce with one hand from one end of the cricket pitch to the other and are as threatening as a sleeping chicken, then you would be referred to as a donkey-drop bowler. You can wake these pandas up. No danger!
Nelson
This cricket term is used for the score of 111. It is considered to have originated from the name of Admiral Horatio Nelson who allegedly had only one eye, one arm and one leg. Likewise, if the score is 222, it is called a ‘double Nelson’ and 333 ‘a triple Nelson’ and so on.
Sidhu can be seen to have scored a Nelson. PHOTO COURTESY: india-srilanka.cricket.deepthi.comAdolf Hitler
You would never guess Adolf Hitler lives on in golf. This term does not refer to an individual in the sport, however. When you have to go through the anguish of taking the first shot in a bunker, missing it and having to take another, an ‘Adolf Hitler’ has just happened with you. Such pain, such agony!
PHOTO: PGA.comSaddam Hussein
If Adolf Hitler wasn’t enough, golf also has a Saddam Hussein. A ‘Saddam Hussein’ would happen to you in a bunker as well but this time there are two bunkers in the game. You somehow manage to hit the ball out of the bunker in the first shot and it jumps, becomes airborne and eventually lands in another bunker. Double the pain, double the agony!
PHOTO: www.golfwrx.comNuked
Yet another controversial term in the game of golf. I hope this changes how you see the sport from now on. You nuke a shot if you can achieve maximum distance on a shot with a particular club. Tiger Woods should be declared a tyrant and a terrorist by now. He must have nuked, Hitler-ed or Saddam-ed so many times.
PHOTO: www.bestwayguides.comWatery Grave
And if violent terms were not enough, here’s a morbid one. What are they trying to do? Hitler, Saddam, nuked, grave? Ah! Well, a watery grave is when someone hits a golf ball into the pond or water.
PHOTO: www.hvmag.comDuffer
Pakistanis and Indians know this term very well. In our slang, it is used for a person who is considered useless. Lo and behold, this derogatory term is also golf slang with a similar meaning, referring to an inexperienced and/or mediocre golfer who only knows how to grab a stick and hit the ball.
Rainmaker
If you think this refers to the kid from the movie Looper, starring Bruce Willis, who had extraordinary telekinetic powers, you are wrong. Rainmaker is a high-trajectory shot in golf which is so high, it seems to be coming out of the clouds bringing the rain with it.
No. Not him! PHOTO: scifi.stackexchange.comFacial
Players face too much time in the sun in almost all sports and always need facials to refresh their faces after hot baths and ice baths. But the term facial does not refer to spa treatments. This term, used in the sport of volley ball, refers to the instance a player jumps in the air and smashes the ball in the opponent’s court and most importantly on the face of the opponent’s player; hence, ‘facial’.
Oops! PHOTO: ESPNPoaching
The term is sure to make you hungry for poached eggs. But unlike its meaning in the kitchen, this term is used in tennis. In a doubles match, when a player near the net moves in to volley a shot which was initially intended to be played by the partner, it is known as poaching.
No one poached better than the Bryan Brother. PHOTO: tennisfixation.comWhipping Area
No, this does not have anything to do with Fifty Shades of Grey. It is a term used in the sport of swimming. Whipping area is the place the competitor relaxes before a race, by the pool side or in a special room.
PHOTO: Foxsports.comHacking
This definitely does not mean hacking into an opponent’s computer to steal valuable information on their strategies. This is much different (yet again) from what it sounds like. Hacking is a term used in football, where a player kicks his opponent’s legs and is punished with a yellow or red card. Remember thinking, “What in the world did Steven Gerrard do?” in the match against Manchester United. He kicked Ander Herrera, and yes, there is a term for it.
Gerrard hacking Herrera. PHOTO: AFPKiller ball/pass
Not to be taken literally, a killer ball/pass is a term used in football, which refers to a ball delivered inch-perfectly to the player intended to and the person on the receiving end is in an impeccable position to score a goal.
The man you can always trust to throw you a killer pass/ball. PHOTO: http://www.dailymail.co.ukNutmeg
You must have seen Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo do this many times. It is a move in football where a player kicks the ball in between the legs of the opponent and then gets around him, leaving the nut-megged player flabbergasted. Can you recall any such event happening with a goalkeeper? If you are a football fan, you surely would.
Carlos Puyol getting nutmegged by Cristiano Ronaldo. PHOTO: http://tribesports.comOnion bag
A term used to refer to a goal in football. If you have ever bought grocery, you would know why.
Its a soccer ball, not an onion. Just saying! PHOTO: vmlip.wordpress.com
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