Keep your eye on the ball

Shane Lee | May 14, 2023

"Play the game for the game sake, and keep your eye on the ball.”

Bradman’s famous quote in response to a sporting journalist’s question on his secret for batting success. Bradman is a sporting enigma. No one in the history of any sport has been almost double the mean. That is, in the history of cricket most elite batsmen averaged in the ’50s (except for Steve Smith currently averaging 63), whist our Don Bradman averaged 99.94.

That is like someone running a five second 100 metres or someone winning 36 majors in Golf. Simply astonishing!

Forty seven years ago almost to the day, a good mate of mine Kerry Penfold from Oak Flats High school lost his eye when he fell on a knife aged three. When the doctors told his parents he was going to struggle in the future to play ball sports, they ignored the medical advice and enrolled him in cricket anyway.

“Keep your eye on the ball!” That is the only option Kerry now had as this young talented left hand opening bat made his way into junior representative teams and eventually first grade for Campbelltown. Kerry was a left hander and had lost his right eye. That meant he had to line the ball up with the bridge of his nose. It meant that only sometimes he struggled to play on the leg side as he had a blind spot on his hip as his nose blocked his vision. Thank God he wasn’t a liar, he would not have been able to play on the leg side at all.

Kerry did much more than just occupy the crease. He ended up scoring seven first grade hundreds, one against the great Glenn McGrath on a greenish wicket. His ability to pick up the length and play all around the ground was amazing. Also, his attitude was outstanding, never letting his handicap impede his belief or ability.

It was always my understanding that without two eyes it was impossible to decipher depth or even judge distance. Well, I’m sure McGrath would disagree with this statement as he witnessed first-hand Kerry’s ability to square cut and drive with power as he marched towards a first grade 100 at Caringbah Oval.

Apart from being an exceptional talent on the cricket field, Kerry had a great sense of humour off it. We would often go out for a beer post-match and Kerry would remove his glass eye and drop it in his beer when he had to go to the toilet. “What are you doing mate?” “Keeping an eye on my beer.” Funny, but I always cringed when he returned from the loo, pulled the glass eye out of his beer, reinsert it and finished his beverage.

What if Kerry had two eyes? Would I need to rewrite the first paragraph of this article? Would his first grade batting average be twice as good? Could he have challenged Bradman’s numbers? I suppose we will never know.

There is a great saying “If your aunty had balls, she would be your uncle.” In other words, it is what it is! What I do know is that Kerry made the most of his abilities and he never blamed a failure or a low score on his unfortunate accident. He never felt sorry for himself due to his upbringing and wonderful parents. It also shows that medical advice can sometimes be wrong and people should never tell anyone that can’t do something.

So yes, if your aunty had balls, she ‘could' be your uncle. Just ask Caitlyn Jenner!

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