Many prominent cricketers have well-known nicknames-as you can see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_used_in_cricket
The origins of these names are varied. Sometimes they are common nicknames such as Jack for John or Harry for Henry. Sometimes they are decided by the player’s family, as in the case of Nanik Amarnath Bharadwaj becoming Lala Amarnath and Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad becoming Vinoo Mankad.
Australia has more than its share of nicknames with odd origins. A very quiet Ashley Mallett became “Rowdy”, while Adam Gilchrist became Gilchurch because a young boy thought that was his name.
Lillee was Fot, because Tony Lock once said “Dennis, stop bowling like a flippin’ old tart!”
Some of the names occurred as a consequence of the long train journeys involved in earlier years. At the start of his domestic career, young Bill Lawry was sent by his seniors to pick up suitable literature from the station bookstall. He had to hurry, and grabbed whatever he could. When he got back, he was told, “Bill, all that you got was a bunch of bloody Phantom comics!”
Rod Marsh’s name came when the train was passing this suburb of Melbourne, when they saw a sign like this:
Moreover, Bacchus the god of wine is depicted in paintings like this:
Some saw a resemblance, so the name stuck.
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