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Daddles, also known as Daddles the duck, is the name of an animated duck who was first introduced in 1977, used in the television coverage of
cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
by the
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n
Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
's '' Wide World of Sports''. When a
batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...
is dismissed without scoring, usually referred to as a "
duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...
", an animation of Daddles, dressed as a batsman, is shown using on-screen graphics, crying, tucking his
bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...
under his wing and walking across the screen accompanying the coverage of the departing batsman on his way back to the
pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
. According to
Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...
, this adds "to the departing batsman's shame" at being dismissed without troubling the scorers. In its most common format, the sound of the duck was similar to an upset-sounding
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...
. The duck was used in many cricket broadcasts for nearly 40 years.


Origins

In 1977, Australian media tycoon
Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...
organised a break-away professional cricket tournament called
World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established ...
, despite never having played cricket himself. He ensured that Daddles was one of a number of innovations introduced at the new tournament, along with additional cameras placed around the ground, greater usage of slow-motion replays, day-night matches, coloured costumes, white balls and stump-cam. There existed a perception that
Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...
needed to "make major changes" to keep the public interested, and that "observing cricket rated about as high as watching paint dry". The graphical innovation, conceived by Australian cartoonist Tom Kerr (no relation to the British cartoonist of the same name) was brought to David Hill, a sports producer for Nine who later brought further innovative coverage of sports to the United States through his presidency of
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
's
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
. It initially horrified the cricket establishment. It was thought of as "brash" coverage of the game; subsequently, broadcasters such as the United Kingdom's
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
, upon announcing that they would be covering the
English cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...
in 1999, stated "there will be no cartoon ducks". Daddles was considered to be a way in which to keep young people interested in the long format of the game. Kerr himself stated on his website in 2016: "I read somewhere that the pommies (the English) ''hated'' it, and that is reward in and of itself."


See also

* Primary Club


References


External links


Daddles the Duck footage
Animated characters introduced in 1977 World Series Cricket Fictional ducks Anthropomorphic ducks Television characters introduced in 1977 {{animation-char-stub