it's just not cricket

it's just not cricket

It isn't fair, sportsmanlike, or legitimate. I know you want to avoid confrontation, but it's just not cricket to break up with someone by text message. You say it's just not cricket, but everyone else fluffs up their CV when they apply for a job.
See also: cricket, just, not
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

it's just not cricket

or

it's not cricket

BRITISH, OLD-FASHIONED
People say it's just not cricket or it's not cricket to mean that someone's behaviour is unfair or unreasonable. Companies can't treat their staff like that — it's not cricket! Note: Cricket is traditionally associated with the values of fairness and respect for other players.
See also: cricket, just, not
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • it's not cricket
  • kosher
  • not cricket
  • not cricket, it's/that's
  • it's not kosher
  • May the best man/woman win.
  • break a lance
  • lance
  • converge
  • converge on
References in periodicals archive
So it's just not cricket, but every sport is actually doing equally good.
Time was when cricket was a template for national character and we do not for nothing use the phrase: 'It's just not cricket.' He actually also displayed that lost part of what was once in the DNA, ie the stiff upper lip rather than the flabby chinned, let's all weep snowflake society we see around us.
Root with a header as England have a football kickabout during training yesterday IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET!
IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET: Crowd trouble and brawls between Pakistan and Afghanistan supporters
It's just not cricket!" The inimitable Arlott would have been dead right, but that's "Blooming June" for you!
Hence the phrase 'It's just not cricket,' which describes anything considered unfair.
In social website twitter he said 'It's just not Cricket', I hope ICC ll take action for politicising Gentleman's game ...
Read: 'It's just not cricket': Chaudhry wants ICC action against Indian team for wearing army caps
"It's just not cricket," Chaudhry tweeted late on Friday.
Because the sport is meant to be played in the fairest manner possible, the phrase 'it's just not cricket' was used to describe anything that did not seem fair and just in everyday life.
'It's just not cricket is it, Rob?!' LAST IN SERIES Line Of Duty BBC1, 9pm The twistiest thing since that seashore shell seller or Peter Piper's peck of pickled peppers.
It just seems very sad to me - in fact, it's just not cricket.
There is an English saying that we as a nation have long grown to regard: "It's just not cricket".
Instead, what I witness are reverse sweeps, switch hits, scoops over the wicket-keeper and many such freak shots which my grandfather would have dismissed as 'it's just not cricket, young man'.
Stephen Fry appears in the stirring Judd's Paradox, an introspective Daniel Radcliffe in Third Man and commentator Henry Blofeld in It's Just Not Cricket. This album can, and will, steal the hearts of all cricket aficionados.