Adam Gilchrist’s friendly manner and habit of walking has already long seen him hold the tag of an ‘old-fashioned cricketer’.
Australian wicketkeeper retires after changing the face of modern cricketMUMBAI: Adam Gilchrist’s friendly manner and habit of walking has already long seen him hold the tag of an ‘old-fashioned cricketer’, and he did nothing other than cement that reputation by the manner in which he announced his retirement on Saturday.
Rather than wait to ensure himself a final tour, of which he would have been a major talking point, or even carrying on until the calls for his head necessitate an ugly expulsion, he has again walked.
“I just knew, there was a point in time when I just knew,” he told Australia’s Channel Nine after his decision was made public. He had not even wanted to talk to the media until after the match, but as he put it, “seeing the amazing response from so many friends, family, supporters, opponents, it’s just been unbelievable.”
A crowd-pleaser till the end, just as he was noted team man, only the slightest hint
emerges that there was any form of self-interest in his timing.
When better to retire than when you are still at the top? When you have just broken the all-time record for wicket keeping dismissals, it seems.
Ian Healy, himself an Australian behind the stumps, agreed but put the matter in more realistic perspective by pointing out Gilchrist’s apparently faltering powers. “His form has been on the wane a bit, he dropped that catch the other day and those ones in Sydney and his footwork has never been his best strength,” he said.
Many would argue that his wicket keeping in general has never been his best strength, but that would be unfair to a man that kept to some of his generations trickiest bowlers, and established himself as a particularly strong brick in an immensely rock-like Australian wall.
Nothing matched his batting however. Gilchrist entered cricket in an era when the wicketkeeper’s runs were a bonus, and has left it in a state where talented players regularly lose their place to those with shoddier glove-work but higher averages.
None have been able to manage the breathtaking speed with which he scores however. The number seven spot in Tests will never be the same again. “By what he has done,” said Australia coach John Buchanan, “everybody else will measure how a wicketkeeper should be selected in terms of the balance of your side.”
Former Australia star Rod Marsh expressed the significance of his batting prowess more simply: “I’ve never seen a man with his job description shape the course of so many games.”
Australia have a ready replacement in Brad Haddin, but as his namesake Hogg is finding out, a very good player never has an easy time of replacing a great one. As for the rest of the world, they have been looking forward to this moment for years.
England ODI captain Paul Collingwood truly understood the Gilchrist effect. When asked of his reaction, he just said, “thank God for that.”
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