The twelfth man customarily knew his place on a cricket ground. He emerged when a drinks break was convened, brought on the long-sleeved sweaters and made sure that the baths had been run at the close of play. Otherwise, he would be required only for a spot of fielding when the fast bowler needed the lavatory.

Cricket is evolving, though, and the twelfth man’s role is changing with it. Soon he may also be responsible for bringing out various types of sunglasses, as Test and county players try to improve their vision against a backdrop of dull red bricks in the North of England or shimmering white buildings in the Caribbean. Given that these will be changing depending on the weather, he could be trudging on to the field a great deal.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and adidas Eyewear claim that light-stabilising tinted lenses worn by several leading players could improve their ability to catch the ball by as much as 28 per cent, compared with standard sunglasses. An overcast morning is transformed into a pellucid day. Eight England players, including Andrew Strauss, the captain, and the fast bowler James Anderson, wear such lenses in the field, and the trend to day/night matches, when fielders are often looking into the setting sun, is a further reason for using them.

The batsman Ian Bell is another fan. “The shock for me was wearing them on a dull day. They made a huge difference in picking the ball up against different backgrounds,” he said.

The research, funded jointly by the ECB and adidas, has been conducted over the past two years. “Cricket is probably the most visually demanding of sports,” Nick Dash, the ECB’s consultant optometrist, said. “Most players were feeling tired and were getting headaches. We found sunglasses to be the easiest way of shaping sensory information, 82 per cent of which comes from the visual system.”

Light-stabilising lenses reduce the amount of glare and enhance red light; hence visibility is accentuated as the background colours of brickwork and spectators’ clothing are subdued and the ball becomes easier to spot. Catching tests conducted with young England cricketers revealed an improvement in performance. Conventional grey sunglasses were found to be too dark by all players in bright conditions, whereas bright orange tinted lenses were more effective at dusk, especially when a white ball was used.

Andy Flower, the new England coach, is intent on improving the team’s fielding — and, coming from Africa, is perhaps more aware than some of the need to protect the eye from harmful UV rays. Richard Halsall, the England fielding coach, goes so far as to wear orange lenses for driving at night.

Alan Knott, the celebrated wicket-keeper who represented England from 1967 to 1981, would have relished wearing vision-enhancing glasses, he said from his retirement home in Cyprus. “I remember dropping two easy catches in Test matches in dull weather at Headingley and Old Trafford, off Bob Willis and Peter Lever. Keeping in dark conditions was the most difficult task of all. I much preferred playing in Australia and India, because I could see the ball so much more clearly.”

Players are not forced to wear the new sunglasses, nor are they paid for doing so — although Bell and Paul Collingwood are supplied kit by the company — and an adidas spokesman said that there would be no objection if anyone took to the field at Lord’s wearing a competitor’s product.

The sunglasses are for sale in shops for about £135 a pair.