A Tribute To Adam Gilchrist

[Beleg]

After Ponting, the best batsman Australia has produced in my cricket watching life. He was the difference between a win and loss on a ridiculous number of occasions.

Thanks for the memories.

 

[age_master]

Amazing player both in what he did in the game, revolutionising the way wicket keepers are looked at, and the way he played the game. A true champion.

Australian of the year 2009!

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Can't help but feel this mantle belongs to Sangakarra.


Otherwise, good riddance to an individual who never really played the game in the right spirit.

As tributes go I can't help feel that's somewhat lacking.

 

[howardj]

Had to report on today's play and I put this in the piece (couldn't resist). It prety much sums him up for me:

It was somehow appropriate that one of the game's greatest ever entertainers should announce his retirement on a day where only 260 runs were scored and purists were taken back to a different era. For Gilchrist, as much as any player has embodied the modern cricketer and the current era. Capable of tearing any attack apart, Gilchrist's high grip on the bat and extended, languid swing of the blade was at once mesmerising yet simultaneously terrifying for opposition bowlers, fielders and captains. Richie Benaud says he has never seen a cleaner striker of a cricket ball - Monty Panesar may well agree. Peter Roebuck wrote a few years back that an argument could be made that he was the third greatest cricketer of all time, such has been his influence on the way the game has been played. In any event, we have not seen his like before.

Before Gilchrist, wicket keepers were 'keepers first, and if they could bat so much the better. He changed all that, and it took him all of two test matches to do it. Who could forget Gilchrist's assured debut 81 against Pakistan, at the home ground of his predecessor Ian Healy? An innings which took Gilchrist from Gabba villain at replacing a local legend, to Gabba hero in about two-and-a-half hours. Certainly no keen student of the game will ever forget his century in only his second test, where he and Justin Langer guided Australia to a most unlikely 369 for victory on a cool Hobart day in 1999. These were but two of innumerable memorable innings from the greatest keeper-batsman ever to play the game - a man whose contributions helped take a team which was already world's best to a different level entirely. He was not perhaps the "pure" 'keeper that Healy was, but his glovework was sound and his work to Warne was as tidy as could be expected from anyone. Indeed, so high have Gilchrist's standards been that a few recent blemishes have seemed to stand out all the more. For all the attention to his batting, he has been a wonderful, wonderful wicket keeper for his country.

It is also true that Gilchrist's manner of play sometimes meant he got out in seemingly embarrassing style or didn't handle the moving ball as well as some others, but this was a large part of the Gilchrist charm. There can never have been a more selfless player at the crease. Not for Gilchrist the poring over statistics, individual records or even the slightest care for one's average. Rather, to the end there has been a child-like naivety in his approach - just get out there and give the ball a good old whack. And herein lies the joyous conundrum of trying to analyse his mark on the sport. For in changing the game with his aggression and unbridled skill at number seven, Gilchrist also took us back to a more carefree time. A time when cricket was for the enjoyment, for the love of the exercise - and if you got out, well, you got out. It's an old-world attitude befitting a pre-war English amateur, yet it's refreshing in these modern, professional times. This is the enigma of Gilchrist – in taking cricket forward, he revived memories of its happier, simpler past. The game is richer for his having been here, and his place in its history is assured.

That's a fantastic tribute.

Perfect timing from Gilchrist. I was hoping that he'd have the self-awareness to realise that it was time to go. I guess to put in perspective his place in the game, you have to cast your mind back to 1999 and recall what we all expected from wicket-keepers. And then flip forward to now. The fact that he made us forget about a great player like Ian Healy so quickly, says it all.

He always seemed like a champion bloke too. I think his contribution to the team, on so many levels, has been inestimable.

 

[howardj]

More tributes

 

[Top_Cat]

Can't help but feel this mantle belongs to Sangakarra.

Oh you mean the guy who gave up the gloves years ago?

 

[Matt79]

More tributes

As mentioned in that article, his captaincy of the first Australian team to win a series in India since Bill Lawry was a fantastic achievement and might have been the pinnacle of his achievements in the game.

 

[Tony]

In the post Warnie world we are trying to spread the spin amongst 3 men, Clarke, Symonds and Hogg. Ok the first two bowled a bit before but Roy is bowling a bit more spin now and Clarke looks like he is getting more bowling.

Is Haddin the guaranteed long term replacement for Gilly. The team is changing a bit - with Hogg, Johnson and Lee all capable of holding dwon no 8 or close. The door could be ajar for a guy who can keep better than Haddin but is not so good with the bat.

Or, does putting Haddin in allow us keep the door open for a spinner or quick to hold down the vital no 11 spot? Ie reducing Hogg's role as a batsman and really looking for the best spinner in the country longer term?

 

[Matt79]

Can't conceive that Haddin wouldn't get at least a couple of series to establish himself. His keeping is good enough, and he's probably a more reliable batsman than any of the alternatives at the moment. I see what you're saying about the batting, but so long as you're not compromising too much in terms of bowling or keeping, you can never have too much batting.

 

[Craig]

You would think he just died

I'll grab my coat.

 

[howardj]

You would think he just died

.

No. But a part of me has. lol

 

[alternative]

Brilliant player, one of the fnest there will ever be and one of my favourite Australian cricketers. Cricket will definitely miss him IMO, Hopefully Gilly can bow out with a big knock in CB series.

 

[howardj]

Have got tickets to what I hope will be his last game - the Second Final.

Might need Tugga's red hanky.

 

[Corli]

Gilchrist has always been my favourite Australian cricketer by a fair margin. He always looks like he is enjoying every moment on the cricket field, which makes watching him a pleasure. Best of luck to him for his last games.

 

[Ikki]

In the words of Bret Hart: "The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be".

The greatest wicket-keeper batsman of all time. A player that left a mark as soon as he stepped into the game. A player, amongst very few players, that very early on would walk into an all-time side. One for the biggest of occasion; bailing Australia out in Tests; and giving a sizeable lead in ODI.

His character is rare in cricket today. The entertainment factor, him and Viv Richards at bat are two of the rarest breed at the crease. His honesty and his integrity, shying away from making bold replies or big displays of pride.

He will be sorely missed.

 

[Craig]

No. But a part of me has. lol

It is amazing how easy it is to bait people with a joke. Nah your right though, he will sorely be missed. At least he isn't a **** like Warne came across as.

 

[Salamuddin]

Personally always thought Gilchrist was a bit overrated as a player.

Good batsman but definitely not quite as good as his fan club made him out to be.


And i'm not altogether convinced he was a better batsman than Andrew Flower.

 

[Prince EWS]

And i'm not altogether convinced he was a better batsman than Andrew Flower.

He wasn't. He was 10 times the wicket keeper though.

 

[bagapath]

gilli was the federer of cricket.

 

[Richard]

Personally always thought Gilchrist was a bit overrated as a player.

Good batsman but definitely not quite as good as his fan club made him out to be.

Well I didn't either. Certainly hasn't been for the last 4 years. The fear-factor has remained (an on the odd few occasions he's lived-up to it briefly once again) but more often than not the last 4 years he's not offered a hell of a lot with the bat.

Nonetheless, for the previous half of his career he averaged 59. Now, that'd have been a bit lower but for the odd few crucial dropped catches, but it'd still have been 50 at the very least. At least. Might work it out sometime.

Either way, some of the stuff said about him has been OTT - he certainly didn't create the idea of the wicketkeeper-batsman, nor really revolutionise it. There had been batsmen-wicketkeepers for a fair few years before him, and wicketkeeper-batsmen long, long before then. Gilchrist simply did the job (between 1999\2000 and 2003, and not thereafter) better than anyone else has ever been able to do, in fact far better than anyone else. There's no way he's revolutionised anything, any more than Bradman or Sobers did. He's just done something no-one else could, and who knows, possibly no-one else will ever do. If we ever see a wicketkeeper (a very, very good wicketkeeper) averaging 59 with the bat in Test cricket any time in the immediate future, I'll eat my computer.

"Every team looks for a Gilchrist", and oft-repeated phrase for at least 4 or 5 years - well, maybe they do, but I assure you they won't find one (at least, one who can do what he could in the first half of his Test career). That's a tribute as fitting as any, for mine. Not a revolutionary, merely someone far more skilled than most.

And, as several have said, someone who has always conducted himself with utmost decorum. I never really enjoyed him batting, but I've long felt that if all cricketers acted as he does over certain matters the game would be inestimatebly better than it is. For that reason, he's a cricketer I've the utmost respect for.

I said it a year ago - for me, he'd have done best to copy McGrath's actions. Make The Ashes his last Test series and the World Cup his last ODI one. He hasn't tainted his legacy any more this season than he could be said to have done already (and I don't really think being unable to average 59 forever is that great a failing) but it'd have been nice for him to go out along with Langer, Warne and McGrath. It's a bit of a shame that didn't happen for mine, but never mind. Farewell to a legend.