What’s in a name? Welcome to the world of the Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers!

Talk about a mouthful! If the clever people in the marketing department at the South Western Districts Cricket (SWD) organisation aimed to get fans talking about their team, then they hit the jackpot.

Because no longer will the team based in the south western Cape be simply known as SWD in local cricket circles … they’ll be known as … wait for it … the Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers.

The new name was communicated to the South African media on Tuesday following SWD’s annual general meeting in Oudtshoorn on Saturday.

The Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers!

Animal names

“In the professional era of sport a strong and unique brand is an essential part in our strives to increase our commercial capacity and we are excited that this step will enhance this specific strategic pillar,” said SWD Cricket CEO, Albertus Kennedy.

South African sports organisations are big fans of changing their teams’ names to those of animals.

We have the Lions and Bulls, Sharks and Pumas. And, as with the Badgers, those are only the shortened versions. The Emirates Lions, Vodacom Bulls, Cell C Sharks and Airlink Pumas also sit proudly with their sponsor’s name at their helm.

And how can we forget some other pearlers, like the Hollywoodbets Dolphins, the Tafel Lager Griquas, the Bizhub Highveld Lions and the Momentum Multiply Titans.

Besides the PR companies and media teams insisting on the full names being used, one’s got to wonder which fans actually use these full names.

Even New Zealand Rugby have caved. In their country the annual Rugby Championship is now known as the Lipovitan-D Rugby Championship.

So next season be ready for a match that will include the Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras perhaps taking on the Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers at Six Gun Grill Newlands. That’s a whole lot of spice and something the commentators might have some difficulty in communicating. Let’s hope the cricket’s as tasty!