Spectacles

Spectacles, also known as pair, are played when a batsman leaves the field without any balance (duck, which was originally derived from duck’s egg; hence, “duck” or “duck egg” for short). This happens when the batter failed to score a run in either of the two innings. That particular occurrence will be referred to as a king pair if he was thrown out for the golden duck, which means that he was hit by the first ball of each of the two innings.

The Meaning and Variations of Spectacles in Cricket

In contrast to the phrase pair, this one is used a bit less frequently. On the other hand, it does not require any more explanation because it has an obvious associative link: two zeros (0-0) is comparable to that of glasses (Spectacles).

In addition to having an ironic meaning, cricket spectacles, pair and duck can be augmented with additional qualities based on the characteristics of the game episode. This is something that should be taken into consideration. Here are some examples of what duck may become:

• Royal, if the match was a failure for the opening batsman;
• Laughing if the batsman scored it at the end of his team’s inning;
• Silver if the batsman hits the ball but is sent out-of-bounds before the next service;
• Gold, if the batsman is kicked out of the game with the first ball;
• Diamond (that is “golden shaggy duck”), if the batsman left the field before serving;
• Platinum if the batsman was sent out-of-bounds with the first ball in the inning;
• Titanium, if the non-striker was sent out-of-bounds with the first ball in the inning (very rare).

Records and Trivia of Cricket Spectacles

There is a record holder for every cricket format when it comes to spectacles. Interestingly, the player who has accomplished this questionable feat does not always perform the part of the batter on the field. Rather, it is frequently a bowler who is obliged to replace a teammate. This is an interesting fact to take into consideration. One player who wore spectacles for seven test matches – three more than anybody else – was Chris Martin of New Zealand.

There are five individuals who have each invented four pairs of eyewear. Four of them, namely the Indian Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, the Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, and the representatives of the West Indies Mervyn Dillon and Courtney Walsh, were predominantly bowlers. Only the Sri Lankan Marwan Atapattu was a slugger. As a side note, his career got off to a fairly dismal start overall; he only managed to sustain one injury over the course of six innings, which is a failure by any standard.

Fourteen players, including Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose and Andrew Flintoff, made three spectacles each. In general, more than forty people have entered the list of “points” holders in the entire history of test cricket. The last ten are:

A further twelve cricketers have now enrolled for glasses consecutively. Because such a “achievement” is so unusual, some of the notable players have insulting nicknames. One such example is the Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar, who was given the moniker “Bombay Duck” due to the fact that he was dismissed from the field seven times in a row while he was touring Australia in 1999-2000.

Mark Waugh (Australia), who designed his first hundred in his debut test match, became famous not because of this, but because of the two Spectacles, which witty teammates changed into Audi, meaning the company’s logo – four rings – “zero “. Meanwhile, Mark was told that he could become the “Olympics” (five rings on the emblem) with only one more duck in a row.

Wicket-keepers also have their list of losers (more than 50 people). Johnny Bairstow (England) and Gary Wilson (Ireland) set a record, who each scored a pair of points in the same test match in 2019.

Interestingly, the player can issue spectacles both within the framework of both innings and on the super-over in the limited-overs format. However, since the runs made on the super-over do not fall into the player’s statistics, such spectacles are called unofficial.