Thanks Gilly

Very rarely do you find players, who apart from being great players change the way cricket is played. Jonty Rhodes revolutionized the concept of fielding, and after his arrival, fielding became as integral a part of the game as batting and bowling. Vivian Richards showed that aggressive nature may not mean reckless, and test batsmen can be aggressive too. Sir Gary Sobers and Kallis and Flintoff showed the importance of allrounders and their necessity in each team. Cricket goes through a phase shift when such players happen, and is never the same again after these players showcase their skills. Adam Glichrist will be known in the coming generations as one such player. He showed that a wicketkeeper who is an accomplished batsman can be the difference between winning and losing, and for a long time, he was the key difference between Australia and their competitors. He completely changed the notion of a wicketkeeper who could be a handy batsman, chipping in with 20-30 runs when he bats. Adam Gilchrist was as good a batsman as anyone else in the team, and that suddenly allows the team to have the luxury of picking one extra batsman or bowler. His batting average of almost 50 in test cricket is far ahead of anyone else who has been a wicketkeeper and played that long.

Apart from this, his opening in one-day internationals also had a similar impact for Australia. When you have a wicketkeeper who has a strike rate of 95+ and can open the innings, you suddenly transform into a very powerful unit. Again the luxury of picking up an extra batsman or bowler is more often that not the key difference in winning or losing. Before Adam Gilchrist, wicketkeepers used to be wicketkeepers. After his arrival, they were allrounders, who could do well in more than 1 aspect of the game, like any other allrounder.

Australia has been a force in the last 10 years in international cricket, and this man has had a big hand in that. Often overshadowed by the likes of Waugh, Ponting, Warne and Mcgrath, Gilchrist has probably been far more instrumental in Australia maintaining their supremacy in the cricketing world. He belongs to the ever shrinking family of players who walk before the umpire’s decision in cricket, but he is not one who would walk away from a challenge. And when you felt he is down and out, he would come back and strike. What better example than the 2007 world cup final? Gilly had a bad series by his standards, but chose the final to tell the world what he is capable of. He blasted 149 off 104 balls, which more or less finished the match for Sri Lanka. Gilly played 96 consecutive tests for Australia, out of which Australia lost only 11, and astonishingly, won 73!! That tells you something about this team and this player.

Cricket has never been the same once Gilchrist arrived. Each team started looking for a wicketkeeper who could be an accomplished batsman. Teams without such players look inherently weak against someone who has such players. And I do not think cricket will ever be the same again after Gilly departs. We will thoroughly miss a player, who had the capability of changing matches on his own. He made cricket richer. As the PA system announced appropriately at the end of the Adelaide test – Thanks Gilly…