Yorkshire and former England cricketer Gary Ballance is in the form of his life, having already scored 1,000 runs in all
competitions this season. However, his hopes of an international recall this
summer are reduced because England are playing three day-night tests with a
pink ball in the next 11 months.
The problem for
Ballance is that he is colour deficient (a better term than “colour blind”
because he can see colours, but sometimes can’t distinguish between them), and
has particular difficulty distinguishing between pinks and greens. The pink
ball would probably be quite clear against a white sightscreen, but may be very
hard to pick up when it bounces. It may also disappear when he’s fielding as
the ball could get lost against the background of a crowd in the stands.
There are tints
that can enhance certain colours. For instance, clay-pigeon shooters find a
light purple colour can enhance the orange of the clay against a background of
trees. But there are also tints designed specifically for those who are colour
deficient.
One such is the
Chromagen contact lens. In 2000, an experiment was done to test the
effectiveness of Chromagen lenses in real life for 14 colour deficient
volunteers. 13 out of the 14 expressed interest in wearing the lenses on at
least an occasional basis, though only two were prepared to pay the full
cost. I remember fitting these lenses
many years ago to an electrician who had difficulty distinguishing red wires in
poor light. He found the lens useful for that specific purpose: I suppose he was
highly motivated not to electrocute himself.
For a cricketer, a
contact lens is likely to be better than a spectacle tint because spectacles
are often impractical under a helmet. The vision will seem strange initially,
so it will be a question of trying it for a time to see if it helps.
Colour
discrimination isn’t just a problem for cricketers. A number of top snooker
players - Mark Allen, Peter Ebdon, Mark Williams and Stephen Lee – are also
colour deficient. Their biggest problem is usually distinguishing the brown
ball when it’s amongst the reds. A red-enhancing tint may help, but it seems
that these players generally get round the problem by asking the referee if
they can’t see where the brown is.