Colour blindness and cricket
 Catalogue Number: 1623 Colour blindness and cricket Category: Book Sub-Category: Book of historical note Author: HARRIS Ross W, COLE Barry L Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 2008 Time Period: 21st C Place Of Publication/Manufacture: Melbourne Publisher/Manufacturer: Authors Description Of Item: A4 size, yellow cloth hard cover with green spine, binding four papers written by Harris and Cole and published in Clin Exp Optom in 2005, 2006 and 2007 together with published letters arising from those papers and two earlier papers on colour blindness and cricket by other authors in an appendix. This book was not published and only a handful of copies were made. Tipped in is a letter from the Marylebone Cricket Club (Lord's Ground) dated August 29 2014 acknowledging receipt of a gift of this book to the Library of the Slipped in is a newspaper cutting from The Age of November 26 2015 being an article by colour blind Australian cricketer Chris Rogers about the pick cricvket ball and his experiences as a colour blind cricketer. Historical Significance: Ross Harris, practising optometrist and member of the ACO, engaged in research to establish whether abnormal colour vision is a handicap in playing cricket. Cricket is played with a red ball often seen on green grass or against green trees. This research arose from a casual conversation Harris had with a fellow golfer who said he had abnormal colour vision (and could not find red golf tees) and played cricket. Harris found that colour blind cricketers were under represented in elite cricket teams. However he also showed by tracing abnormal colour vision in his descendents that celebrated Australian test batsman, Bill Ponsford (1900 to 1991), (pictured) was a protanope. He concluded that while colour blindness might be a handicap to playing cricket at the elite level it was not an insurmountable one. How Acquired: Donated by Barry Cole, honorary life member of the College Date Acquired: Oct 2010 Condition: Fine Location: Archive room. East wall. Books by Australian authors |