India won a historic one-day series down under yesterday, finally getting the monkey off their back by beating Australia 2-nil in a best of 3 finals. That there was no need for the third match to played, demonstrates how India dominated the Aussies in the finals totally. But the world is talking a lot about that already, and I shall refrain from doing so this one time.
Instead, I am going to write about the one man I have always admired as a cricketer, who hung his boots yesterday. The man, as is no secret, is none other than the Australian, Adam Gilchrist. Wicket-keeper par excellence, batsman most dreaded, and a sportsman who stands out like an angel amongst his other team members who wouldn’t miss any trick in the world (character assassination included) to get the better of their opponents. He was one man who never waited for the umpire’s decision, but always walked, if he thought he had edged the ball and had been caught behind. A true gentleman cricketer, I must say, in this day of blatant, low-stooping techniques to stay at the crease by so many others in Australian cricket that it has almost become their charter – “do not walk unless the umpire says you’re out”. Even in his last inning, he walked even before the umpire had time to react to the appeal, on a very faint edge, decision on which could have gone either way.
Gilchrist scored just 2 runs in his final essay before edging Praveen Kumar to Dhoni. The fact that he finally finished with 9,619 runs in 287 one-day internationals shows that this was uncharacteristic of his otherwise extremely high standards. Why, on his batting abilities alone, he would be the pride of any cricketing team in the world. And the pace at which he scored runs was always something that gave ulcers to every opposing team captain, and put him consistently on his toes to somehow try & control the run flow.
As a wicket-keeper, he was again unparalleled and contributed to 472 dismissals in his career. And to be keeping wickets to champion bowlers like McGrath and Warne is no mean task, and his contribution to their tally of wickets is immense. He definitely changed the basic qualification required from a wicket-keeper to a wicket-keeper/batsman/all-rounder, and Kumar Sangakkara & M.S. Dhoni would be immensely proud to be from his herd of cricketers.
Statistically speaking, the man averages 33.52 runs per match (I am not calculating averages the traditional way, wherein you look at averages based on no. of innings that a batsman has been out on). In terms of dismissals, he averages 1.64 per match. If he just stayed on to play another 13 matches to reach 300 one-day internationals, he would have scored an additional 436 runs, and crossed the 10,000-runs mark. To get 28 dismissals to reach the 500 mark, he would need 17 matches. So, if he lingered on for some more time only for this very year (nobody wanted him out of the team at all, as his contribution is immense even now, and there are no serious contenders knocking on the Aussie team door yet), he would have surely got both the 10,000 run mark & the 500 dismissal mark, in addition to an amazing 300 ODI appearances. That he had the courage to go into retirement with such huge milestones within his grasp, shows the man’s mettle and resolve.
If only the world (and specially Australia) had more such cricketers, the gentleman’s game would still be extremely competitive, without being combative. I will surely miss him.
