SubscribeMy favourite cricketer… Adam Gilchrist
Posted on Jan 28, 2008 under Players |
Ok… this is not to be an ideal tribute or anything of that sort. To me, he is my favourite cricketer. As far as his accomplishments in the game is concerned, am sure there will be thousands of articles written on that which I will enjoy it better reading rather than writing with my half-baked skills (even that is debatable).
To sum up in short of what he has done for the game…
- There was still somebody in world cricket that believed it was a gentleman’s game.
- He changed the whole concept of a wicket keeper in world cricket and that’s a bloody huge impact a single person has solely achieved and inspired.
- He made test cricket interesting through his batting, considering how many dull draws were magically transformed into an exciting win.
- He is a bloody good bloke well respected all over the world and rightly so.
I can encounter one incident almost 9 years back, when Australia were touring India and I had to help a journalist friend of mine in conducting a poll on the favourite cricket player to kids within the age group of 8-16. 40,000 votes across various schools, playgrounds all over India and the result was Adam Gilchrist coming in a very close second, loosing by less than 0.5 percent to Sachin Tendulkar. At that point, I really felt that these generations of children at least on cricketing aspects had their head screwed up right. It also showed he commanded awe and respect to 14 and 16 year olds, which many former Indian greats garnered less than 2 percent. It was a stunning poll result.
As for this truly great cricketer, he was and will remain one of the kind, as people remember pioneers more than mere followers. I wish somebody now writes a really good post on Adam and immortalize him.
Peace!
by Ottayan, on January 28 2008 @ 4:17 pm
You are right about Gilly changing the concept of a wicket keeper. He started the trend of a wicket-keeper batsmen, unfortunately, it became bastardised and now there are more batsmen wicketkeepers (Prior,Dhoni,Parthiv Patel,Kaarthick,Akmal,you name it)than wicket keepers.
by Keasty, on January 28 2008 @ 5:46 pm
Well Buddy, I agree with everything you said. What a beaut bloke. I also appreciated the fact that he was often the delegated spokesperson for the team. I know he will miss the team big time, just as they will miss him. BUT…. life goes on. Trust me!
by scorpicity, on January 28 2008 @ 6:11 pm
Yup Otts, Gilly may not have been the best ever in terms of wicket keeping skills but he was bloody good! I think this is where the high standards of great keepers from Australia like Healy, Marsh etc, came into play.
by scorpicity, on January 28 2008 @ 6:14 pm
Welcome Keasty… you are right on the spokesperson aspect. In a recent twenty-20 match against New Zealand, he was so nice and entertaining with the player field mics as the action was going on. I wished they had continued with him and packed the commentators for an early dinner.
by kp, on January 28 2008 @ 9:43 pm
Gilly took the game to next level….:) I felt he was bit more honest than others(ponting,haydos,Steve W,symond)!
by vmminerva, on January 28 2008 @ 10:05 pm
Nice article of a great cricketer and a gentleman. To me, his honesty sets up apart from the rest.
by scorpicity, on January 29 2008 @ 10:33 am
Ah KP… honesty etc. is all gone… this is a sport no different from football where in time certain things just gets accepted as a part of the sport but never in the rules though. Gilly was a good bloke.
by scorpicity, on January 29 2008 @ 10:34 am
Welcome minerva… hope to see more of you here… cheers
by Soulberry, on January 30 2008 @ 12:19 am
No doubt about that…Gilly will be missed.
You could try this - Gilchrist: a damn fine cricketer