From Milwaukee to Brisbane: The story behind Smith's 'Eye Black'

He might be a proud New Yorker these days. But it's a distant Milwaukee connection that could end up playing a massive helping hand for Steve Smith when he faces the pink ball under lights during the second Test in Brisbane this week.
It turns out that Smith had been looking for a solution to deal with the glare off the pitch while batting under lights against the pink ball. Smith's initial plan was to use a black zinc eye stick and draw lines under his eyes. But that was shelved citing concerns that they might get smudged or wiped off in the sweaty Brisbane conditions.
It's then that Lyon, the National Inclusion Ambassador for Cricketers with a Disability, reached out to a fellow off-spinner for assistance. Sean Walsh has been a long-term member of the Australian Deaf cricket team. He also works though as a media marketing manager for the Brisbane Bandits, who are one of the founding teams of the Australian Baseball League.
"Gaz (Lyon) reached out to me a week before Australia's first session at the Gabba and asked me if I could help get some eye stickers for Steve. And I knew just the guy who could sort it out," Walsh tells Cricbuzz.
The Bandits for the record have enjoyed a 30-year strong partnership with the Milwaukee Brewers, a central division team in Major League Baseball (MLB). So much so that one of their own, Shaun O'Brien, a former club house attendant in Milwaukee, now calls Brisbane home and is the executive officer of the Bandits. But when Walsh reached out to O'Brien with his request for eye stickers, the American had no clue who Steve Smith was or what day-night Test cricket meant.
"Shaun did however agree to help us. Since all our baseball is played during the day, we didn't have any handy in our clubhouse. So he reached out to Leading Edge, who are a family-owned local baseball and softball goods store based in Redcliffe. And that's how we were able to secure the eye stickers for Steve," says Walsh, who was a net bowler for Australia's session on Sunday, where he brought them along for Australia's premier Test batter. And there will be an extended supply of eye blacks coming Smith's way as per his request over the next couple of days as we get closer to the pink-ball day-night Test in Brisbane.
Interestingly, Smith didn't start his session with the eye stickers on. He instead faced a couple of deliveries before remonstrating about being affected by the glare off the pitch or from the lights at the Gabba nets. There was a lot of hooting and cheering from his teammates as he walked back in with the "Shivnarines" on-as Marnus Labuschagne would coin it. With Australia's No 3 not surprisingly leading the way, referring to Smith as "Shiv" for the rest of the session.
Smith middled the first delivery he subsequently faced with the stickers on, and yelled out, "I can actually see the ball," in excitement. That was enough to convince him to stick with them for the rest of his session, even if it required a couple of adjustments midway through.
It became the talking point of Australia's training session four days out from the second Test, with everyone present having their say on Smith's latest accessory. And it continued into Monday's session under bright sunlight with Smith even joking about potentially getting sponsors for his stickers the way Chanderpaul had done during his heyday.
The eye black is used quite commonly by baseballers as a way to differentiate between light and dark, even during daytime, though not every user has seen the benefits unlike Smith seems to have over the last two days. And it seems very likely that he will be sporting them during the Gabba Test that starts on Thursday. With Labuschagne having seconded his batting partner's inclination to do so.