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 the United States, the former is more usually called a shutout.

It is not typically used for certain games such as association football or baseball, where a failure to score is very common; in football the winning team's goalkeeper is said to keep a clean sheet if they do not concede a goal, while in baseball the winner pitches a shutout.

Cricket

In cricket, the term is used when one team wins all the matches played in a particular series; some examples include:

• England's 3–0 defeat of Australia to win the 1886 Ashes series.
• 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.
• 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.
• England's 5–0 defeat of Sri Lanka 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.
• Bangladesh defeated New Zealand 4–0 to win 5 match ODI series (One game was abandoned) in October 2010 and 3–0 to win 3 match ODI series in November 2013. New Zealand was touring Bangladesh. These two matches were labelled "Banglawash" as the language of Bangladesh is Bangla and "Bangla" often used among locals for the things made in Bangladesh. Bangladesh defeated Pakistan 3-0 in 2015 when Bangladesh were hosting Pakistan.
• 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.
• 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 5–0 defeat of India to win the 2014 ODI Series.

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). In other words, it is called a triple or double-bagel respectively. Double bagels are more common in tennis.