Adam Gilchrist – The greatest Number 7 ever and the Gentleman Cricketer!
We Indians consider the Aussies as their Second biggest rival after our neighbours Pakistan. Madras’s people in particular like the Australians more than any other Indian states. They appreciate Good game from whichever camp that comes from.
Good Sportsmanship! That’s the keyword. The term sportsmanship seems to be out of the dictionaries of the cricketers these days. But Gilchrist seems to be the exception. I’ve seen him walk about 5times atleast when he believes he’s out. The great Sachin Tendulkar didn’t walk yesterday after clearly edging a delivery. Why this unsportsmanship behaviour? For a person who’s considered to be the next batting great after the great Sir Don Bradman, he should have walked. But no he did not.
But Adam Gilchrist seems hell bent on maintaining that standard that he has set for himself and ofcourse for others. The West Indian Batting Great Brian Lara did this long before it got this much recognition. Thanks to M/S Gilchrist sanity has prevailed. We were very quick to jump on the Aussies the sledgers Bandwagon, similarly we should be sportive enough to Applaud them when they do good.
“Hats of Gilly”
Now is Gilchrist the greatest No 7 in the history of the game? Well the question should not have come at all in the 1st place. The rate at which he scores runs (Nearly 85 runs per 100 balls) in test cricket is quite unheard of, but that’s what Gilchrist can do. The number of times he has saved his team from near disaster to the safe shores is uncountable. To add to his discomfort or should we say responsibilities he does the thankless job of wicketkeeping and if that’s not enough he’s been asked to lead his country whenever Ricky Ponting has a date with his Physician’s table. I remember the record breaking innings by Mathew Hayden he was pummeling the hapless Zimbabweans in to submission, my younger brother told me the score is somewhere around 700, I told him may be Gilchrist would have scored his hundred he laughed and said how did u know? That’s what Adam Gilchrist can do. Blow the opposition like a twister in seconds with irreparable damage.
Now calling him the greatest allrounder would be an understatement, to call him a great Cricketer in general, well that’s the term that is being used to describe all and sundry who play the game. Then what do we call him?
May be we should call him “The Greatest Cricketing Gentleman” because he is the epitome of greatness and Cricketer par excellence.
Gily keep us all entertained for many more years…………
Good Sportsmanship! That’s the keyword. The term sportsmanship seems to be out of the dictionaries of the cricketers these days. But Gilchrist seems to be the exception. I’ve seen him walk about 5times atleast when he believes he’s out. The great Sachin Tendulkar didn’t walk yesterday after clearly edging a delivery. Why this unsportsmanship behaviour? For a person who’s considered to be the next batting great after the great Sir Don Bradman, he should have walked. But no he did not.
But Adam Gilchrist seems hell bent on maintaining that standard that he has set for himself and ofcourse for others. The West Indian Batting Great Brian Lara did this long before it got this much recognition. Thanks to M/S Gilchrist sanity has prevailed. We were very quick to jump on the Aussies the sledgers Bandwagon, similarly we should be sportive enough to Applaud them when they do good.
“Hats of Gilly”
Now is Gilchrist the greatest No 7 in the history of the game? Well the question should not have come at all in the 1st place. The rate at which he scores runs (Nearly 85 runs per 100 balls) in test cricket is quite unheard of, but that’s what Gilchrist can do. The number of times he has saved his team from near disaster to the safe shores is uncountable. To add to his discomfort or should we say responsibilities he does the thankless job of wicketkeeping and if that’s not enough he’s been asked to lead his country whenever Ricky Ponting has a date with his Physician’s table. I remember the record breaking innings by Mathew Hayden he was pummeling the hapless Zimbabweans in to submission, my younger brother told me the score is somewhere around 700, I told him may be Gilchrist would have scored his hundred he laughed and said how did u know? That’s what Adam Gilchrist can do. Blow the opposition like a twister in seconds with irreparable damage.
Now calling him the greatest allrounder would be an understatement, to call him a great Cricketer in general, well that’s the term that is being used to describe all and sundry who play the game. Then what do we call him?
May be we should call him “The Greatest Cricketing Gentleman” because he is the epitome of greatness and Cricketer par excellence.
Gily keep us all entertained for many more years…………
posted by Sathyanarayanan @ 1:43:00 am
5 Comments:
At 5:46 am,
Vijay said…
He is not only a great sportsperson, but also a flamboyant aus team spokesperson and very media-friendly. Great guy !!
At 4:31 am,
Vijay said…
hey santh...
Good comment, but i dont understand the "walker" thing as i'm not a big cricket fan and i dont understand half of the cric jargons.
Keep posting ... !
At 2:53 pm,
Vijay said…
santh. .. got it.. thanx man ! cheers !!
At 9:09 am,
Vijay said…
Interesting read about multi-skilly gilly in "The age" - leading australian daily !
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Cricket/Multiskilly-Gilly/2005/04/06/1112489563873.html
keep posting ...
At 9:15 am,
Vijay said…
Viewing the above link requires sign up, instead, i'm pastin the article below, cheers !
----------------------------------
Major interest in Gilchrist
By Chloe Saltau
April 7, 2005
Adam Gilchrist gives the impression of being able to manufacture miracles with his bat, but could he make it as a major league baseballer? The manager of Australia's exceptional wicketkeeper-batsman yesterday suggested he might try to find out after his retirement, after Gilchrist was quietly courted by the Boston Red Sox earlier this year.
Gilchrist was approached informally before the recent tour of New Zealand by Jon Deeble, the Red Sox Australian-born Pacific Rim scout and first-base coach.
He was so impressed by the Australian's sweet hitting and sharp eye that he wrote in an email to his manager, Stephen Atkinson: "He times the ball as good as anyone I've ever seen, and he is such a great athlete that I wouldn't underestimate his ability (to make it)."
Do not expect, though, to see Gilchrist hitting home runs in a pair of knickerbockers in the immediate future, if ever.
Atkinson emphasised yesterday that Gilchrist, who had never held much of an interest in the sport, had no intention of walking away from Australian cricket and was totally focused on this year's quest to retain the Ashes, but he also left open the possibility of trying out as a baseballer in the future.
However, former Test captain Ian Chappell, who was an all-Australian baseballer in the 1960s and as a teenager flirted briefly with the idea of trying his luck in the United States before his father told him to "shut up" and get on with playing cricket, provided a reality check. Even Australian cricket's miracle man, Chappell said, would struggle to make it in the major league at his age.
"At 33, it's already too late, but after his retirement you can forget about it," said Chappell, whose nephew, the son of Greg Chappell, is a talented baseballer but was recently released by the Toronto Blue Jays after a series of injuries.
"They want to get Australian kids over there in the college system for the simple reason that they want them over there young so they can teach them the game as the Yanks play it," he said.
"Even as a hitter I would be dubious about his chances, but you couldn't put Adam in the field. You need to know where to throw in certain situations and that's something you can't learn overnight.
"It sounds to me like a nice PR exercise, but I can't imagine it being anything else.
"As good as Gilly's hand-eye coordination is, against serious pitching I can't see him doing much damage."
Atkinson said Gilchrist, who has struck more centuries than any regular keeper in Test history and continues to amaze with his clean, powerful hitting for Australia, might try his hand with a baseball bat when Deeble was next in Australia.
At the moment, Gilchrist is on holidays with his family before the Australian team leaves in early June for the tour of England.
"They (the Red Sox) have expressed an interest in exploring the possibility of trying Adam out in the future for baseball, but because he's never played, all this is going to depend upon them personally having a look at him," Atkinson said. "His No. 1 priority at the moment is cricket and the Ashes, but we just see it as a great compliment to him to have a scout from the World Series champions saying they want to have a look at him. Maybe one day after cricket, who knows? If he's 35 or 36 and someone offers him a trial, then he'd consider it."
Gilchrist, who would presumably have to work his way through the minor leagues but could expect to earn huge dollars in the US, is not the first Australian cricketer to have been sounded out for baseball. Fast bowler Brett Lee once tried out as a pitcher with major league team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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