Bespectacled Cricketers

[Class of 63]

Watching Jack Leach bat for England wearing glasses on Friday set me off trying to remember other players that had played for England(Tests, ODI's and 20/20s), or any of the other Test playing nations for that matter who'd also wore glasses.

Two days on and the only ones I can think of so far without cheating are:

England
MJK Smith
Geoffrey Boycott ?
David 'Groucho Marx' Steele
Paul Allott
Eddie Hemmings
Derek Pringle

Australia
Dirk Wellham ?

India
Anshuman Gaekwad
Dilip Doshi
Narenda Hirwani
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
Anil Kumble

New Zealand
Walter Hadlee
Daniel Vettori

Pakistan
Zaheer Abbas

South Africa
Eddie Barlow

West Indies
Clive Lloyd

Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh i've so far drawn a blank

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There's obviously been quite a few more over the years, can anybody else think of any ?

Broaden it out to include anybody that has played first-class Cricket if need be.

 

[Varun]

Sehwag

 

[Class of 63]

Sehwag

Good call, i've seen him batting in shades before, but not glasses

 

[Neelu]

Ganguly? Not sure if he ever wore them on field.

 

[Class of 63]

Geoff Cope - Yorkshire and England off-spinner

Gordon Greenidge ?

 

[Moonred]

Ganguly, Pankaj Roy, Charles Coventry.

 

[Class of 63]

Alf Valentine

 

[Class of 63]

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...ning-in-bespectacled-spectacular-1118141.html

The XI, then, in batting order, is:

Geoff Boycott (England)
Eddie Barlow (South Africa)
Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan)
David Steele (England)
Mike (M J K) Smith (England)
Clive Lloyd (West Indies)
Peter van der Merwe (South Africa)
Percy Fender (England, captain)
Paul Gibb (England, wicketkeeper)
Bill Bowes (England)
Alf Valentine (West Indies)

 

[Interval]

Dan Vettori

 

[Mani]

N.Hirwani

 

[prath92]

Dan Vettori is the first name that comes to mind tbh.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

http://www.cricketcountry.com/criclife/dream-team-a-bespectacled-xi-497096

This more recent article includes a couple of other names including Vettori and Kumble in his earlier days:

 

[ArmchairCritic]

Trescothick wears glasses when he bats now for Somerset.

 

[ArmchairCritic]

Chris Rogers used to wear glasses and struggled to pick up the pink-ball in D/N matches as a by-product of his colour deficiency but he never wore glasses when batting.

 

[The Man Himself]

Trescothick wears glasses when he bats now for Somerset.

Wtf he still plays? Isn't he like 50?

 

[ArmchairCritic]

Wtf he still plays? Isn't he like 50?

Yep. Him, Collingwood and Chanderpaul all still going strong into their 40s in County Cricket.

 

[The Man Himself]

Yep. Him, Collingwood and Chanderpaul all still going strong into their 40s in County Cricket.

Just checked on cricinfo and Trescothick has decent scores as well in matches played in 2017. Didn't know about Collingwood still playing too! Chanderpaul, I had read, played with his son in a domestic match, sometime last year.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

Just checked on cricinfo and Trescothick has decent scores as well in matches played in 2017. Didn't know about Collingwood still playing too! Chanderpaul, I had read, played with his son in a domestic match, sometime last year.

Chanderpaul was at Lancashire last season

 

[Samid]

Surprised no one has mentioned Jack Russell yet.

 

[Class of 63]

Imam-ul-Haq, the nephew of Pakistani great Inzamam-ul-Haq scored a century wearing glasses on this ODI debut last October against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi

 

[Class of 63]

Imam-ul-Haq, the nephew of Pakistani great Inzamam-ul-Haq scored a century wearing glasses on this ODI debut last October against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_...receive-maiden-call-ups-ireland-england-tests

Really looking forward to seeing Leach bowling to Iman-ul-Haq this Summer. A first in watching Test cricket in over 40 years.