Whitewash (sport)

A whitewash is an informal term in sport describing a game or series in which the losing person or team fails to score.

A whitewash may be in a single game where the loser fails to score any points or goals, or in a series where the loser fails to win a game. In North America the two are differentiated, with the former called a shutout and the latter a sweep.

It is not typically used for games such as football where a failure to score is very common; the winning team's goalkeeper is said to keep a clean sheet if they do not concede a goal.

Cricket

In cricket, Whitewash is a term that is used when a team wins all the matches played in a series of at least 3 matches.

• Australia's 5–0 defeat of England to win the 1920-21 Ashes series.
• Australia's 3–0 defeat of England to win the 1979-80 Test series.
• West Indies' consecutive 5–0 defeats of England in 1984 and 1985-86. These two Wisden Trophy results are also commonly labelled blackwashes because of the dark skin of the West Indies players.^[1]
• Australia's 5-0 defeat of the West Indies in 2000-01 to win the Frank Worrell Trophy
• Australia's 5–0 defeat of England to win the 2006–07 Ashes series.
• Sri Lanka's 5–0 defeat of England to win the 2006 Natwest Series.
• Australia's 3-0 Test victory, 5-0 One Day victory and 1-0 Twenty20 victory over Pakistan in Australia in 2009-10.
• England's 4-0 defeat of India to win the Pataudi Trophy during India's tour of England in 2011.
• Australia's 4-0 defeat of India to win the 2011-12 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
• Pakistan's 3-0 defeat of England during England's tour of the UAE in 2011–12.
• India's 4-0 defeat of Australia to win the 2012-13 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
• Australia's 5–0 defeat of England to win the 2013–14 Ashes series.
• Sri Lanka's 3–0 defeat of Australia to win the Warne-Muralidaran Trophy in 2016.
• South Africa's 5–0 ODI defeat of Australia during Australia's 2016–17 tour.

Rugby union

The term whitewash is also used in rugby union when one team loses every single match in a particular series. The team that comes last in the Six Nations Championship has the ignominy of being awarded the wooden spoon, even if they have not suffered a complete whitewash.

Tennis

In ATP and WTA tennis, the term whitewash is used when a player fails to win a game in a match (6-0, 6-0, 6-0 or 6-0, 6-0), also called a triple- or double-bagel respectively. Double bagels are more common.

References