it's not cricket

it's not cricket

It isn't fair, sportsmanlike, or legitimate. I know you want to avoid confrontation, but it's not cricket to break up with someone by text message. I don't see why you think it's not cricket—everyone else does it all the time.

See also: cricket, not

It's not cricket.

 and It's not kosher.

It's not done.; It's not acceptable. You can't do that! It's not cricket!

See also: cricket, not

not cricket

Unfair, unsportsmanlike, as in It's not cricket to let him go without notice. This term, in which the sport of cricket is equated with upright behavior, survives in America despite the relative unfamiliarity of the sport there. [Mid-1800s]

See also: cricket, not

not cricket

contrary to traditional standards of fairness or rectitude. British informal

The game of cricket, with its traditional regard for courtesy and fair play, has been a metaphor for these qualities since at least the mid 19th century.

See also: cricket, not

it’s (just) not ˈcricket

(old-fashioned, British English, informal) it is not a fair or an honourable action or way of behaving

See also: cricket, not

not cricket

mod. unfair; illegitimate; unorthodox. (See affirmative examples at cricket.) What do you mean it’s not cricket? You do it.

See also: cricket, not

not cricket, it's/that's

Unsportsmanlike, unfair, dishonorable. Eric Partridge traced this term to 1867 but believed it was not widely used until the early twentieth century. Among the early references in print is Stanley Houghton’s 1914 play, The Partners, “. . . but it is not playing the game. In other words, Cynthia, it is not cricket.” Although cricket is a sport popular exclusively in Great Britain and most of its former colonies, the term crossed the Atlantic and became a cliché in the United States as well.

See also: not