Daddles
{{Short description|Cartoon character}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
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 by the Australian Nine Network's Wide World of Sports.{{Cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/pommiesenglandcr0000buck| url-access = registration| quote = daddles the duck.|title = Pommies: England Cricket Through an Australian Lens| year = 2008| first = William|last=Buckland|isbn=978-1-906510-32-9| publisher = Matador|page=[https://archive.org/details/pommiesenglandcr0000buck/page/85 85]|accessdate= 25 May 2011}}
When a batsman is dismissed without scoring, usually referred to as a "duck", an animation of Daddles,{{cite web|url=http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/worldofsport/australia.php |publisher=Transdiffusion Broadcasting System |accessdate=25 May 2011 |title=Australian Rules Cricket |first=Damian |last=Cahill |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609094626/http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/worldofsport/australia.php |archivedate=9 June 2011 }} dressed as a batsman, is shown using on-screen graphics, crying, tucking his bat under his wing and walking across the screen accompanying the coverage of the departing batsman on his way back to the pavilion. According to Cricinfo, this adds "to the departing batsman's shame" at being dismissed without troubling the scorers.{{cite web | url = http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/297167.html| title = Hawk-Eye, hotspots and Daddles the Duck|first=Martin|last=Williamson|accessdate=25 May 2011| date = 7 June 2007|publisher = Cricinfo}} In its most common format, the sound of the duck was similar to an upset-sounding Donald Duck.{{Citation |title=Batsman walking off with daddles the duck |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIeXWo0sbkk |language=en |access-date=20 August 2022}} The duck was used in many cricket broadcasts for nearly 40 years.
Origins
In 1977, Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer organised a break-away professional cricket tournament called World Series Cricket, despite never having played cricket himself.{{Cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/4561994.stm| title = Cricket revolution | first = Paresh|last=Soni|accessdate=25 May 2011|date=27 December 2005|publisher = BBC Sport}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/325202.html |title=Cameras, lights and coral pink | Regulars | Cricinfo Magazine |publisher=Cricinfo|date=13 December 2007|first=Martin|last=Williamson |accessdate=25 May 2011}} There existed a perception that Test cricket 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's Fox Sports.{{cite book|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Dkxpkpcd14MC&dq=daddles+the+duck&pg=PA209| title = Rod Marsh: A Life in Cricket|first = Mark|last=Browning|page=209|date=1 October 2003|isbn=1-877058-23-8|accessdate=25 May 2011}} 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, upon announcing that they would be covering the English cricket team in 1999, stated "there will be no cartoon ducks".{{cite news | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/just-not-cricket-1102605.html| title = Just not cricket?| accessdate = 25 May 2011|date = 26 June 1999 | first = James|last=Rampton|work = The Independent}} Daddles was considered to be a way in which to keep young people interested in the long format of the game.{{cite web | url = http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/cricket/can-we-save-test-cricket/story-e6frectl-1225807240423 | title = Can we save Test cricket? | first=Scott|last=Walsh|date=6 December 2009|accessdate=25 May 2011|publisher = Adelaide Now}}
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."{{Cite web |title=Daddles the Duck |url=https://kerrtoons.com/daddies-the-duck/ |access-date=20 August 2022 |website=KerrToons |language=en-US}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/daddles-the-duck.1191695/ Daddles the Duck footage]
{{World Series Cricket}}
Category:Animated characters introduced in 1977
Category:Anthropomorphic ducks
Category:Television characters introduced in 1977
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