Gilly's exit to hurt more than Warne, McGrath: Buchanan

MELBOURNE: Australia's former coach John Buchanan reckons Adam Gilchrist's exit might prove a bigger loss for the team than the retirement of bowling greats Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
    
As the entire country struggles to come to terms with Gilchrist's sudden decision to quit Test cricket after the ongoing match against India and retire from ODIs after the subsequent tri-series, Buchanan felt the void would be difficult to fill.
   
"Possibly his loss is more than even Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath," Buchanan told Cricinfo.
    
"What Adam Gilchrist delighted me was his sense of balance as a player in sport played at the highest level," he said.
    
Buchanan coached Gilchrist almost throughout his illustrious career and the former coach said he was touched by his ward's gesture of calling him to inform about the decision.
    
"He didn't need to do that but I certainly appreciated his gesture...I admired him as a person, as a cricketer and as a father. His contribution to Australian and world cricket was incredible," Buchanan said.
    
"He set benchmarks for wicketkeeper-batsmen and in general to cricketers. He could change games with a drop of hat in any form of the game. His character as a person, his contribution to the captain and the team culture even exceeded his contributions on the field," he said.

Prime Minister Kevin Ruud too was taken aback by Gilchrist's decision and said the star stumper-batsman had turned down his request to reconsider the decision.
    
"As the Prime Minister, I told him 'Gilly, you have to reconsider your decision' but he told me he was not," Ruud said in Canberra.
    
Noted cricket writer Peter Roebuck too doffed his hat at the Australian and, in his column for the same daily, wrote, "Adam Gilchrist has given more outright joy to followers of the game than any cricketer since Sir Garfield Sobers. He will be missed as a cricketing force, as a contributor and as an entertainer."
    
Former teammate Jason Gillespie was also effusive in his praise for the left-hander.
    
"He just loved being around the lads in the dressing room, having a laugh. He was always wearing his baggy green and his whites and he was always the last one to get changed out of them," Gillespie said.
    
South African Mark Boucher, who saw his world record of most dismissals by a stumper being snatched away by Gilchrist, said the Australian had revolutionised the game.
    
"The night before I had sent him a text message after he went past me on the (Test dismissals) list, saying, 'congratulations on an incredible career, long may it continue." Boucher told 'The Sun-Herald'.
    
"There have probably been better wicketkeepers in the game, but he revolutionised the game in terms of being a wicketkeeper-batsman," Boucher said.
    
"Before he came into the game, it was OK for a keeper to be averaging between 20 and 25 if he was doing a good job with the gloves. But Gilly came in and set new standards for all of us to follow. Like Jonty Rhodes changes the face of fielding, Gilly changed the role of keeper-batsmen," he added.
    
Boucher also felt that Gilchrist's legacy would stand the game in good stead.
    
"Everyone would like to be like Adam Gilchrist, and turn games around by smashing the ball to all parts of the ground. There will be a lot of juniors all over the world coming into the game trying to emulate the way he has played, and that can only be a good thing," he said.
    
England's one day captain Paul Collingwood too felt Australia would find it difficult to substitute the stumper-batsman.
    
Reacting to Gilchrist's decision to quit, Collingwood joked "Thank God for that."
    
On a more serious note, he said, "He's amazing. From the start of his career he played with freedom and expressed himself and had no fear of failure."