Modern-day cricket has seen cricketers using different gear on and off the field for several reasons. Apart from the traditional guards and helmet, there have been other devices that track their performances and also ease their performance. Here are examples of such "weird" cricket accessories players use in modern-day cricket 1 | GPS Tracker attached to vest: Modern-day cricketers often wear black vests that look like sports bras for females. However, it has a GPS tracker attached to the backside, in between the shoulder blades. The vest is normally a tight-fitting compression garment often worn under the jersey. Players wear those during trainings and often during matches. These vests track step counts during sprinting or jogging and collect data like distance covered, speed, acceleration, and deceleration. It even tracks how much high-intensity running vs. walking or standing. Players' workloads are often tracked with this. Players wear these during matches to count their movement and work on during their practice session to manage their workload 2 | The WHOOP band A WHOOP band is normally worn on the wrist, waist, or the bicep, even though cricketers, or rather all athletes, wear it on the wrist. Normally, A WHOOP band is a subscription-based model, normally priced around US $30 per month. It is a wearable fitness tracker that monitors heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep quality, and overall strain to give athletes a clear picture of their recovery and readiness. Cricketers use it to manage training load, track fatigue, prevent injuries, and optimize performance by understanding how their body responds to workouts, matches, and travel. Unlike GPS tracker vests, which focus on movement, distance, and workload on the field, WHOOP provides continuous physiological data, helping players make informed decisions about rest, recovery, and training intensity. Read also: How long does a pink ball Test normally last? Here is detailed analysis of the average life span 3 | Eye-blacks Recently, during the second Ashes Test at Gabba, the Australian captain Steve Smith was seen wearing white tape underneath his eyes, which is called eye-black. Not just cricketers, but players from American football, baseball, softball, and lacrosse—and sometimes in other outdoor sports- who are often exposed to high-light games, use these Eye black to reduce the effect of the light. The main idea is glare reduction. A research from Yale University said that a black tape or a black grease mark underneath the eyes can reduce the reflection from the cheekbones while playing under heavy light. Even though much research refuted the claims, many athletes still use that to sometimes have some psychological comfort too. West Indian player Shivnarine Chanderpaul used such Eye Blacks while batting, a man who was actually approached by Smith before the Test match and applied the trick. 4 | Smart Bat Sensor Smart‑bat sensors are small motion‑sensor devices that attach to a cricket bat, typically at the handle, converting it into a “smart bat.” These sensors capture data every time a shot is played, including bat speed, swing path, impact timing, bat angle, and follow-through. The information is transmitted to a mobile application, allowing for detailed analysis of batting technique. This technology provides objective feedback, enabling players and coaches to refine skills with precision rather than relying solely on observation or intuition. Several companies offer smart‑bat sensors. StanceBeam, an Indian sports‑tech startup, provides the StanceBeam Striker, which delivers 360° bat analytics via an IoT-based platform. Str8bat produces sensors that record bat speed, swing path, and impact location, with 3D replay functionality for technical review. BatSense by SmartCricket.com offers comprehensive shot analytics, including bat speed, back-lift angle, and follow-through, designed for practice and coaching purposes. These types of sensors are often used by international cricketers like Dhruv Jurel and others but mostly during practice sessions. ICC has still not allowed such devices for professional cricket matches.