Chinaman (term) is almost entirely absent from British English, and has been since before 1965. However, "chinaman" (not capitalized) is still used in an alternative sense to describe a left-arm unorthodox spin bowler in cricket. Most British dictionaries see the term "Chinaman" as old-fashioned, and this view is backed up by data from the British National Corpus. According to "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage", in American English "Chinaman" is most often used in a "knowing" way, either satirically or to evoke the word's historical connotations. It acknowledges, however, that there is still some usage that is completely innocent. In addition, Herbst notes
Spin bowling the pitch dries up and begins to crack and crumble. This again provides more purchase for the spinning ball and produces greater deviation. Spin bowlers that open the bowling are rare, but became a more a viable option with the introduction of Twenty20 cricket when pitch conditions are in their favour, and the ball also generally drifts more in the air. Both finger spin and wrist spin bowlers use a range of different angles of spin to confuse the batsman and dismiss him. Many of these variations have direct equivalents in the other discipline, but the names used for the