One of Australia's greatest cricketers was a protanope: a genetic detective story solved with the help of Schmidt's sign

Abnormal colour vision is under-represented among first class cricketers (Goddard N and Coull B BMJ 1994; 309: 16841685) and interviews with cricketers, all of whom had a mild colour vision defect, suggest there may be times when they lose sight of the red cricket ball against green surrounds (Hams and Cole Clin Exp Optom 2005; 88: 176–180). It is possible that severe abnormal colour vision precludes playing cricket at its highest competitive level. It is known that Bill Ponsford, who played Test cricket from 1924 to 1934 and was one of Australia's greatest batsmen, had abnormal colour vision. We have diagnosed him to be a protanope by tracing the abnormal colour vision exhibited by some of his descendents. We used Schmidt's sign using the Medmont ClOO colour vision test to identify carriers of the protan gene to trace the protanopic gene to Ponsford with greater certainty. That such an accomplished batsman and highly regarded outfielder should have a severe colour vision deficiency suggests that abnormal colour vision might not be, or at least need not be, a handicap to playing cricket at the most competitive levels.