NBA franchise Dallas Mavericks announce new Chinese name after translation issues with current one

Their name currently translates into Chinese as 'Little Cows'

They will now be translated as 'Lone Ranger Heroes' (Getty)

NBA franchise the Dallas Mavericks have announced a new official name for the Chinese market to stop their current moniker being translated as ‘Little Cows’.

The official Chinese name for the Texas-based team will now be 独行侠 (DúXíngXiá), which translates roughly in English to ‘Lone Ranger Heroes’.

Basketball is big business in China and the NBA has made aggressive steps to try and monetise international markets in the way that the NFL has so successfully done in London.

Indeed, London hosts an NBA game next week as part of basketball’s attempts to catch up with rival American sports.

The Mavericks, owned by billionaire investor Mark Cuban, crowd-sourced ideas for their new name from Chinese social network Weibo and announced it on another social network, Tencent.

“This is the beginning of a new chapter in the Mavericks’ long legacy in China,” said Mavs owner Cuban. “With this Chinese name change, we’ve made history by giving our Chinese-speaking fans the opportunity to redefine our identity. I think that fans will be proud of this new name.”