Best 'Keeper In T' World (nothing to do with batting ability)

[The Argonaut]

Gilchrist is good enough and the batting certainly makes up for any deficiencies. Guys like Seccombe and Berry are much better keepers in Australia.

Taibu did look good when they were out here lately. Not that he got to take many balls. Mahmud was also tidy.

I've never really rated Stewart as a great keeper, a similar standard to Gilchrist.

It's pretty hard to pick the best. I haven't seen Read or Hart before so I can't comment. McCullum's drop this morning was a clanger so you couldn't rate him.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Mahmud was also tidy.

*Mashud

Mahmud's the captain and "all-rounder"

 

[marc71178]

What does that mean?

Well the fact you want your keeper to be a top class batsman.

A wicket-keeper is a very specialist position, probably more so than any other player in a Cricket side.

 

[marc71178]

Ian Heally is te best WK I've seen in the period since 1989. He could do it all. He always caught the important catches, and he kept brilliantly to both spinners and the fast men.

Sounds like Russell to me.

I think most people would place the 2 of them fairly even - Healy was good, and so was Russell.

To call him over-rated is almost as bad as some of the ruggish that Age is posting at the moment.

 

[marc71178]

Keeping is about results, not about what they look like. Russell didn't get results. Stewie on the other hand did.

RCR - 165 dismissals in 54 games (plus 1319 FC and counting)

AJS - 241 in 82 games.

So Russell gets more dismissals per game - isn't that the job of a keeper?

 

[Tim]

McCullum is not doing himself any favours while he is continuing to drop crucial catches.
I mean for 95% of the game he keeps brilliantly & for some reason he makes one bad error.

 

[Andre]

If we are picking the best gloveman in the world (current), I'm going to have to nominate Rashid Latif.

 

[deeps]

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Mxyzptlk
For my money...

Hart
Taibu
Patel/Read
Latif
Boucher
Jacobs
Sangakarra/Gilchrist

I would controversially rate Jacobs above Gilchrist and Sangakarra, because although his style I unorthodox, he's a solid
'keeper who has taken some superb catches in his tenure.
-*-*-*-*-*-

HOw exactly is patel a better keeper than Gilchrist???Come oN! did u guys watch the 2nd test match against New Zealand? He was SHOCKING..dropped about 3 sitters, missed the easiest 2 stumpings, and let HeEAPS of byes go through.

Gilchrist really has improved his keeping, but he's found it hard to shake the tag as a 'passable' keeper...If you forget the past,and watch gilchrist keep now,he is good..Very Good.. Lets very few byes go through,very rarely drops a catch, and very good for team morale (he's a funny guy!)

 

[Tim]

Im probably one of the few that thinks Gilchrist is actually one of the top 3 keepers in the world...he has definately improved, but most people refuse to believe it.

 

[Top_Cat]

I just can't believe this lack of acknowledgement of the 'keeping of Adam Gilchrist. If we were to use Marc's example:

RCR - 165 dismissals in 54 games (plus 1319 FC and counting)

AJS - 241 in 82 games.

R Taylor - 174 dismissals in 57 games

Gilchrist - 203 dismissals in 47 games

Which puts Gilchrist's stats amonst the best ever (even better than Heals if you're going by dismissals per match). I'm confident that we're all certain that Gilchrist isn't the bext 'keeper ever (Heals or Taylor would have to take that) but I'm also quite certain that his stats and pure abaility with the gloves puts everyone else in the world squarely behind him. He's not silky smooth (being 6'3" will do that to you) but in keeping to the quicks, no-one would match him world-wide surely. To the spinners he's suspect but certainly keeps quite tidily.

Yes Gilchrist has been 'keeping in an outstanding team (replete with two 400+ Test wicket bowlers) but even acknowledging that, you don't get as many dismissals as he has in such a short space of time by being merely competant and he certainly hasn't played all their careers nor has he kept for Australia when either McGrath or Warne were at their absolute best.

Credit where credit is due, guys. Whilst Gilchrist has been in the Aussie side, no other keeper in world cricket has matched him for sheer consistency and the ability to make the tough grabs that others can't get to. Again, I know his spinning-ball 'keeping isn't fabulous but against pace, I'm failing to how on Earth anyone could rate him so low.

Liam, without putting too fine a point on it, your list is ludicrous. Putting the 'keepers you have above Gilchrist flies in the face of all available evidence (not just statistical) and I can only conclude a bias against Gilchrist. Putting Sangakkara in the same ballpark as Gilchrist for ability is pretty insulting even, let alone putting Patel and Hart above him.

 

[iamdavid]

Gilchrist has certainly improved out of sight since I first saw him keep in a ODI in 1997 , Id say the reason most of you Englishmen dont rate him is you're memory of the way he kept at Edgebaston in 2001 (absolute rubbish) , however other than that match his test carear has been very good , he's a great keeper nowdays , not in the same league as Healy or Moin Khan but still better than Stewart ever was.

Chris Read is IMO the best keeper to seam bowling in the world , however when keeping to spin he often looks very ordinary (trust me , I saw him keep to MacGill , which aint easy but he left a bit to be desired) , Taibu has great footwork , he's very fit & agile & also posseses huge work ethic , all the qualities that made Ian Healy a star , he has the potential to be the best in the world although right now I dont quite think he's there.

Boucher has taken some superb catches in his time & is generally very solid , however he does have the odd off series where everything just seems to go wrong (the 2001/02 VB series & this summer in England) , I like the look of his understudy Van Wyk though , he's a very solid keeper & potentially brilliant batsman.

Rashid Latif gets the job done pretty tidily on most occasions , he's the sort of keeper who wont drop any of the simple ones , although from what Ive seen he dosent take alot of the screamers either , a tidy keeper but nothing more.

Patel & Mcullam are both terribly inconsistent , Ive seen them both keep extremelly well at times & horribly on others (like last night).

Moin Khan was also great on occasion , the best keeper to spinners Ive ever seen. Mongia had his days aswell.

There are also some great keepers in domestic ranks around the world , Wade Seccombe & Darren Berry could both legitemately challenge for the tag of worlds best gloveman , as could Andy Pratt (although Ive only ever seen him like twice) , the unlucky Jack Russell is also still a very good gloveman & in his heyday I dont doubt he was number 1.

However in my opinion the best keeper Ive ever seen is Adam Parore , he was very solid to all types of bowling & very rarely dropped anything.

The best today is probably either Taibu , Gilchrist or Khan (now that he's playing again)

 

[Craig]

When Andy Flower was 'keeping for Zimbabwe, IMO he was the best 'keeper batsman in the world and his concentration was impeccable.

I havent seen not of lot of Carlton Baugh 'keeping wise, but I have seen him bat.

 

[Tim]

Parore was just very composed behind the stumps, you just knew that every time an edge went to the keeper Parore would take it easily.

I guess he never really got the chance to keep to a good spinner but I don't think there are any areas that I could fault him...he did the basics & thats all a keepers needs to do to become world class.

 

[Tim]

I wouldn't say McCullum is inconsistent, he's been working hard with Steve Rixon & really the only time i've seen him make blunders as a keeper have been the two dropped catches off Dravid & then Williams.
Apart from those unfortunate incidents he's been very good & I hope he can fix this slight problem.

 

[luckyeddie]

There's little doubt that Gilchrist has improved leaps and bounds with the gloves - in exactly the same way as Stewart did whilst keeping for England.

I'm simply amazed at his keeping stats - something like 2 catches per innings and a few stumpings thrown in - staggering.

That one stat can be misleading, though.

Consider the keepers with similar averages of dismissals (3 or more in a game, no particular order) -

Gilchrist 47:203
Healy 119:395
Boucher 67:261
Dujon 81:272
Marsh 96:355
Grout 51:187
Latif 37:130
Jacobs 51:175
Taylor 57:174

OK, I've missed a few, but you get the picture. The number of wicket-keeping dismissals, even the AVERAGE number of wicket-keeping dismissals per game is very much clouded by the presence or otherwise of a decent bowling attack.

Lies, damned lies etc

 

[PY]

Chris Read is IMO the best keeper to seam bowling in the world , however when keeping to spin he often looks very ordinary (trust me , I saw him keep to MacGill , which aint easy but he left a bit to be desired)

Got to wonder how he's going to get regular practice with top-class spinners in England :rolleyes: It's a major problem.

He can treat England's spinners as nothing more than slower-than-medium pace at the moment because I haven't seen as England spinner bowl with raging turn since Read has been on international scene.

 

[JohnnyA]

Got to wonder how he's going to get regular practice with top-class spinners in England :rolleyes: It's a major problem.

He can treat England's spinners as nothing more than slower-than-medium pace at the moment because I haven't seen as England spinner bowl with raging turn since Read has been on international scene.

Then why is he being touted so much? Standing back from the stumps can't be that difficult. What did Foster do to get jumped in the queue? He looked lilke a ballsy batter to me, and he did a consistent job behind the stumps.

And I've NEVER seen any English spinner with raging turn in the last 16 years. They're all sh*t. You'd gotta seriously question what the hell is going on at county level with the crap that has been coming through these last 20 years.

Time to get rid of most of these counties and concentrate the "talent", coaching and money into 6 or 7 regions. All 3 of the paying spectators might be a little disappointed ... but it's for the good of the game.

 

[V Reddy]

I rate Gilchrist as a keeper very highly too. I saw him take a lot of great catches and rarely miss any for a long time . The only series where i remember him not keeping well was that Ashes series.

Hart - He dropped quite a few easy catches in India.

Patel - He kept very well till the second test against NZ but since then has been ordinary.

 

[gibbsnsmith]

has everyon ignored the fact that Gilchrist is much luckier than most to the fact that he plays to the best bowling attack for some time, Gilchrist gets more chances than the rest...

He is more than a capable keeper IMO, thast being said...

 

[luckyeddie]

has everyon ignored the fact that Gilchrist is much luckier than most to the fact that he plays to the best bowling attack for some time, Gilchrist gets more chances than the rest...

He is more than a capable keeper IMO, thast being said...

Nope, as I pointed out earlier in the post re dismissals per game. Obvious. Well spotted.