The traditional and legendary cricket almanac ‘Wisden’ has decided to not use the term ‘Chinaman’ to describe the left-arm wrist spinner anymore because of its racial origins. The recently released 2018 edition of the Wisden instead notes down the bowlers as SLW (Slow left-arm wrist spin) changing from SLC (Slow left-arm Chinaman).
The term ‘Chinaman’ is supposed to have originated from a Test match played between England and West Indies at the Old Trafford in 1933. In England’s first innings, Walter Robbins batting on 55 alongside Douglas Jardine was stumped on the bowling of Ellis Achong. Achong is described as a left-arm orthodox spinner but it is believed that the ball that got Robbins out turned into him rather than going away.
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On his way, the legend says that Robbins quipped to the umpire, “Fancy being done by a bloody Chinaman.”. Ellis Achong was the first Test players to have Chinese ancestry. Although there have been records of previous bowlers bowling in a similar way to Achong, the term ‘Chinaman’ stuck and is being used till date. The recent popular example of that is Kuldeep Yadav.
Usual left-arm spinners spin the ball away from a right-handed batsman and occasionally bowl the straighter one (eg. Ravindra Jadeja). A rare breed of left-handed spinners spins the ball into the right-handed batsman using wrist spin. Brad Hogg is one of the popular examples of the skill.
Last year, when Kuldeep Yadav made his spectacular Tets debut against Australia, the term ‘Chinaman’ again got into play. One of the cricket writers based in Australia, Andrew Wu took objection to the racial slur being used to describe the style. He rather asked it to be named after the inventor ‘Achong’ if possible. This sparked a debate and issue got discussed a lot more.
Perhaps, Wisden disowning the term will be the first step in purging out racial slurs which have been used extensively in cricket. Similar thoughts have been shared regarding the dismissal mode called as ‘Mankading’ which is nothing but than a run-out due to non-striker’s negligence.
