"Avissat ?!" - A Glossary of Street Cricket Terms

Listening to Rahul Dravid's Bradman Oration brought back memories of my own childhood days spent playing street cricket. Browsing through the internet, found some amazing collections of street cricket terms. Thought will make a glossary and contribute some of my own. 

I dedicate this to every Indian who played (and is playing) street cricket. No wonder we produce world's best batsmen (really sad we also produced Arun Lal), considering all the street cricket played on 'the asphalt beauties' in India, Lord's and Perth are just cakewalks.

Right then, here we go. And yea, don't forget to do as mentioned in the last line of this post.

Atitail 

Etymology English - Refers to a batsman being 'Retired' (hurt or not). Probably a corruption of 'Add at tail' or 'Hurt Retired'. Normally in a limited overs (say, 8 overs) match to give everyone a chance to bat, a batsman calls 'Atitail' and gives way for the next person. 

All - reals..first ball 

Etymology English - Before an innings starts, a couple of trial balls are traditionally bowled, to get a feel of bounciness of the pitch (and some cases, the ball). Any runs scored or outs during the Trial balls don't count. When the bowler decides that the Trials are over, he/she declares "All - reals... first ball" which indicates that any runs/outs hereafter will count. This indicates the start of the match. 

Avissat 

Etymology English(Howzzat!!) - Appeal to Umpire for out (run out, catch, etc) Howzzat itself comes from "How was that?" 

Baby/Mini Over 

Etymology English - When a bowler has no hopes of completing his over with lots of wides and no balls he is substituted by a better bowler and the over is called a Baby over (usually lasting 3 balls), Baby because the first bowler was very amateur. 

Ball Right 

Etymology English - When an umpire/batsman declares a wide ball, bowler uses this term to say that the ball was not a wide. Typically happens because umpires are from the batting teams. 

Boundary out 

Etymology English - If the batsmen hits the ball without pitching on the ground, directly into any of the surrounding houses, a boundary is assumed to have been hit, and the bastman is considered out. This rule is to prevent losing the ball when a particularly rude neighbor does not let the players into the house to retrieve the ball. 

By-Runner 

The street cricket version of our conventional runner who runs if a batsman is hurt or cant run properly 

Chain Over 

Etymology English - When a bowler bowls two continuous overs. Typically happens when captains fail to calculate correctly the number of overs in the absence of electronic score cards 

Common/Extra Fielding 

Etymology English - Due to lack of number of fielders, it is possible that people from batting team have to field or do wicket keeping or for that matter even umpiring 

Current 

Etymology English - The unique and distinctive way of getting a batsman run out. When a batsman attempts a dangerous run, he could be run out by any of the fielders who just need to hold the ball in hand and land their feet on the stone (which is the stump mostly) at the bowlers end (hence run out by 'conduction', as opposed to hitting the wicket at the bowler's end)

Dokku 

Etymology Tamil - A derogatory term for a defensive shot. Typically a batsman is discouraged from playing such shots because of the constraints of less number of overs and because everyone in the team needs to have a fair amount of gaaji (see Gaaji). An onomatopoeic origin can be ascribed based on the sound a ball makes on contact with the bat for a defensive shot.

Double Gaaji 

Etymology Tamil and English - An exceptional scenario wherein a batsman can bat twice if there are a shortage of players in the side (Again, see Gaaji)

Double-side batsman 

Etymology English - When the total number of players is odd, one player is declared as Double-side batsman. Typically this person keeps the wicket and will not be allowed to bowl. Also known as inter-pinter or joker. 

Double-side out 

Etymology English - This means that only a single batsman is running and can be out when thrown at either end, immaterial of which end he runs to.

Erangaradhu 

Etymology Tamil - Stepping out to bat 

Full Cover 

Etymology English - A situation where in a batsmen is taking a half stump guard thereby covering the complete stumps from the bowler's view. Since street cricket typically do not have an LBW it is very difficult to get a batsman out, if he covers the stump fully 

Full fast 

Etymology English - Since street cricket pitches are just a few yards long, a ball which is thrown with full pace and energy is considered a no ball as it will be impossible to handle such pace 

Gaaji 

Etymology Tamil and English - Comes from 'Taking guard' - The Indian reference for an 'innings', usually for batting. It is a well known fact(citation needed) that captains of street cricket teams always prefer to bat first irrespective of conditions. A team batting is said to have had its 'gaaji' and a team which did not bat can get their 'gaaji' the next day 

Gaaji mannan 

Etymology Tamil - Literally means king of 'innings'. Used to denote a batsman who wastes away deliveries, focussing on playing out deliveries, rather than playing for the team's cause. 

Gabbai 

Etymology Unknown. When a fielder or wicket keeper misses a catch or is sloppy on the field he is referred to as a "Gabbai". 

Gilli 

Etymology Tamil. Derived from game 'gilli dhanda' played in the streets - Refers the stumps or bails in cricket. Usage: gilli egirichu meaning 'stumps flew' to describe act of being 'clean bowled' in cricket. 

Goal 

Etymology English - When a fielder misfields the ball, such that the ball slips through his feet.

Granted 

Etymology English - When a batsman hits a reasonable distance from which fetching the ball back is slightly difficult due to technical difficulties (like vehicle crossing a road, presence of a thorny bush, pond etc), teams agree that a fixed number of runs are GRANTED. Usually, "1G", "2G" etc, indicating the number of runs granted. 

Gudova 

Etymology English - A Good over. Also said when a maiden over is bowled. 

Half - Crease 

Etymology English - Half way down the distance between the two creases. If the 'Double - Side out' rule is not used in case of a 'Last man gaaji', then half crease is used to determine which end is closer to the batsman, if one needs to run him out. The batsman is out only of he is runout on the end he is closer to. 

'Idea' bowling 

Etymology English - Type of play in restricted over games when a bowler bowls a slightly widish delivery to one side that cannot be called 'wide' by umpire as the batsman has moved way too much to the other side. (usually due to his style of batting) 

'Idea' batting 

Etymology English - Type of play when batsman changes his 'hand' (right to left or vice versa) after delivery of the ball to hit it to take advantage of the fielding setup. In some versions of street cricket, batsman can be called 'out' which can cause interruption in the game to better interpret the accepted rules. 

'Idea' running 

Etymology English - Type of play, when a runner crosses in predetermined fashion to the other side to get strike for the next delivery. Usually done to fast bowlers who are keeping a weaker batsman in strike without trying to get them out. In this case, the weaker batsman gets a 'stern warning' from the captain after couple of dokkus to comply with runner and attempt to cross to the other side without touching the ball. The batting side is happy as long as runner reaches safely. If the batsman does not comply, the captain will strategically force a 'by runner'.

'Idea' fielding 

Etymology English - Type of play when a good fielder purposely misses the catch of a weak batsman, if he can run out the better batsman(runner). Also happens, when a ball is hit into bushes (ball not visible) the fielder appears to search even after finding the ball simply to force the batting side to attempt another run only to effect a run-out. 

Joot 

Etymology Unknown - A call to resume play, pronounced after a period of 'Waitees'. 

Kattai/Kattai Podradhu 

Etymology Tamil - Same as 'Dokku'. Wasting overs by playing non-scoring shots. 

Kichan 

Etymology Unknown - When there is a mismatch in the number of players, the team having lesser number of persons is provided a kichan, i.e., any person from the team can bat again. 

Kuththaradhu 

Etymology Tamil - When the bowler is hitting the deck hard. 

La Ball 

Etymology English - Last ball of an over. Also other derivatives available viz. La One, La Two (meaning 'one ball left in the over', 'two balls left in the over') 

Last Man Gaaji 

Etymology partly English - A scenario where the last man who is not out with all wickets down gets to play "Gaaji" with no runner. It must be noted that, the fielding team can effect run outs on both the stumps when there is Last Man Gaaji 

Lottai 

Etymology Tamil - A colloquial word for left-handed batsmen. 

Mattai 

Etymology Tamil - The piece of wood to be used as the cricket bat. Need not confirm to geometrical trivialities. It also means when a batsman play very defensively for a long time and not scoring runs. 

Maanga 

Etymology Tamil - When a bowler bowls a very fast ball (usually a full toss, which is almost a throw) it is called maanga. This usually leaves the batsman badly hurt because he uses 'full cover' tactics. Originated from the act of throwing stones on to mango trees to fetch mangoes. 

Nandu Pidikarathu 

Etymology Tamil - A fielder mis-fields the balls many times before holding on to it firmly. Nandu in Tamil means Crab and "Nandu Pidikarathu" basically means catching a crab. 

One Side Runs 

Etymology English - When teams decide before hand that there are runs only on one side of the wicket due to lack of sufficient number of fielders or obvious field limitations like a wall on the leg-side or traffic on the off-side 

One-Pitch Catch 

Etymology English - A rule where a batsman gets out when a fielder catches it after the ball pitches only once. Typically street cricket batsmen do not go for lofted shots for fear of getting out. This rule is believed to master the defensive strokes in basmen. 

One-Pitch One-Hand 

Etymology English - A slight modification of the above rule where a fielder can use both hands to catch a ball 'full toss', but has to use only one hand to catch the one that is 'One - Pitch'. Typically used to increase the chances of batsman's departure and yet make it challenging for the fielding side.

Osi Gaaji 

Etymology Unknown, partly English - A scenario where some stranger wants to bat for a couple of balls just for fun and then carry on with his work. Osi is actually O.C. an acronym for "on company" which refers to freeloading on your company's resources, thanks to loop-holes in the administration. 

Over Gaaji 

Etymology Unknown - The act of a selfish batsman who purposely retains strike by taking a single of the last ball of the over to enjoy more "Gaaji"ing 

Pazha catch 

Etymology Tamil - Absolute sitter of a catch (pazham - fruit) 

Return Declare 

Etymology Unknown - Same as 'Atitail'. But sometimes used, when a batsman crosses a stipulated number of runs say 20 or bats for stipulated number of balls so that others can get a share of gaajiing. Similar rule exists in Hong Kong Sixers.

Sodukku bowling 

This is an art of bowling where a slow delivery turns very quickly. This type of ball is really hard to defend.

Soththai 

Etymology Tamil - Usually an adjective used to describe a bad or useless object. This could be soththai batsman, soththai ball (which indicates that the ball is dead which could be either due to wear and tear or because of an improper bounce). 

Suthuradhu 

Etymology Tamil - Mad slogging. 

Thadavuradhu 

Etymology Tamil - (In the context of cricket) When a batsman is not able to make any contact with the ball using his bat even though he tries very hard. 

Tip 

Etymology English. When the batsman snicks (edges) one to the wicket keeper. 

Throw 

Etymology English - Batsman appeals for the 'maanga' throw by the bowler. 

Under arms 

Etymology English - The bowler is allowed only to bowl the ball under arms (mostly employed when the pitch is very very small or while playing on roof tops). 

Uruturadhu 

Etymology Tamil - When the bowler is unable to extract any meaningful bounce from the pitch. Sometimes used as a defensive tactic. 

Waitees 

Etymology English - When batsman/any fielder gets distracted from the game due to highly technical reasons like a vehicle crossing the road when a ball is bowled (with the pitch perpendicular to the road). Antonym: Joot. 

Waits for the crease 

Etymology English - Same as 'Waitees', but applicable only to batsman. 

Win Declare 

One of the team is declared as winners instead of completing the match. The main reasons of this is rain, bad light, or one of the team is not interested in continuing the match. 

Winning Gaaji 

Etymology partly English - A scenario where the team batting second completes its inning even after winning the match. This is to give the team an opportunity to bat if the other team gets out cheaply. Usually, it is agreed upon at the start of the match whether to have this rule. An example of such agreement is the announcement at the time of the toss, "Winning Gaaji, no Last man Gaaji" which means that there will be Winning Gaaji but no 'last man gaaji.' 

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If you are a true cricket fan and you really understood everything explained here, then catch hold of an ardent football fan and ask him, "Man, we have goal in street cricket. When are you going to introduce leg-side in football ?!"