One Americanism that is really getting my goat

If I read or hear the expression "stepping up to the plate" one more time I may scream. I have never liked its usage in a British context and like it even less when it is used with reference to cricket. There is something deeply wrong about using a baseball metaphor in a cricket setting. That the Americans expend so much time and energy following what is essentially a game of rounders is inexplicable enough but for the British to then use language from a girls game to describe the requirements of the greatest sport invented - cricket - is just plain wrong.

The BBC have long loved this baseball derived expression; part of the US obsession that they have where American words and phrases are new and exciting and therefore usable as often as possible. However the usage seems to be spreading it even making the Telegraph sports section at the weekend.

Let's drop this ugly Americanism and see if we can have more references to "sticky wickets", "play a straight bat" and maybe even "bat for the other side".