One thing conspicuously missing after Aaron Finch was dismissed for a zero by Ishant Sharma in Australia’s first innings — Daddles the duck seen on screen during the Channel Nine Test cricket coverage, walking away in despair with a sneering scowl.
For the first time in more than 40 years, Australian cricket isn’t on the Nine Network with Seven Network and Fox Sports bagging the broadcasting rights for Australian home cricket for the next six years. This also means there’s no Daddles to rub salt into the batsman’s wounds.
In October, however, Fox Sports announced that it will come up with its own duck to serve as ‘a great symbol of that new attitude.’
“The new duck signifies a new attitude to Australian Cricket broadcasting – we honour the past and create the future at Fox Cricket,” Matthew Weiss, General Manager, Fox Cricket, told Sportstar.
‘Angry little fella’
The duck doesn’t have a name as yet, and the fans are likely to have a say in the process.
“We are considering running a competition and letting cricket fans name the new duck. He’s a ripper! There are various versions, he gets pretty angry the little fella!” said Weiss.
“We had a designer come up with the new duck and his animation — it’s been a lot of fun,” added Weiss.
The unnamed bird will be voiced by Shane Warne. Asked the reason behind picking Warne, Weiss narrated an anecdote.
“When we were setting up the channel, we were telling Warnie about the new duck and he said he wanted to do the voice.
“He did an audition and sent us a video message of himself by a lake in London impersonating a duck and the rest is history!”
