A great batsman, an average keeper

I doubt that I could disagree more with this one, Jonathan.
Like any keeper, including the list of greats you cited, Gilchrist could grass a few.
But if you take a look at his highlight reel, his ability to take freakish catches was up there with the best keepers I’ve seen.
His work up on the stumps was also consistently excellent.

I spent twenty years or more keeping myself – I feel like I have an appreciation of the art.
I would be more than happy to have Gilchrist in the big gloves in any team I was selecting.

It would be a mistake to:
a) Allow the glare of his batting brilliance to blind us to his ‘keeping performances, and
b) Let a few dropped catches in his last games mar the consistent excellence of his wicket-keeping record

I have to agree with SpryCorpse here. Gilchrist was a very consistent, reliable ‘keeper, who was capable of absolute brilliance. I remember seeing him stump Craig McMillan off Glenn McGrath in a One-Dayer a few years back- it was a very neat piece of work. In fact, Alec Stewart recently said that he was the thrid-best ‘keeper he’d ever seen, behind Healy and Knott, and if he can’t quite live up to their standards, then he’s not alone.

By the way, if you look, I think you’ll struggle to find “Healy’s 6 Greatest ‘Keeping Performances,” either.

Yeah, I’m not with you on this at all. Gilly went through patches of not-so-great keeping form, but look at how well he kept to Warne/MacGill, how good he was standing up to the stumps to medium/fast medium bowlers….

Unfortunately I don’t think brilliant keeping instances stick in the mind the way they probably should, perhaps because most of the punters have no idea how hard keeping is, and so we all have trouble judging it.

Two wicket-keepers of the modern day cricket have transformed the role wicket-keepers are expected to play in a team — Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher. True that both of them followed great wicket-keepers, Healy and Richardson respectively, but as eligible replacements they only raised the standards of both keeping and the role of a wicket-keeper in a team up one notch.
The three wicket-keepers that most used to worry me as keeper-batsmen of the opposition were Boucher, Gilchrist and Moin Khan, because not only were they capable of finishing it with the bat but also they could pull-off blinders when it mattered most.
Gilchrist might have dropped a few too many in the bygone series against India, but that could now be called the fag end of his career, when he wasn’t at his best. Clarke, who is otherwise an outstanding fielder, dropped a few in this last series, but you wouldn’t want to call him an average fielder for that, would you?
Gilchrist has been a wonderful embassador for the game, and I hope he continues to work for the betterment of the game. Take a bow, Mr. Gilchrist!

IMO, Sangakara is a far better batsman & Wicket keeper than Gilchrist.

Gilchrist was well past his prime and was just playing on reputation. An average of 30.22 since Ashes 2005 (included) isn’t great (drops to 26 if you exclude Bangaldesh and ICC XI games). Even in the ODI’s apart from the 100 in the WC2007 finals, he contribution has been pretty average.

Will be missed though….

Saurabh – Sangakara hasn’t been keeping wicket lately. And subsequently his batting has been better. To rate them against each other, surely Sangakara would have to bat and keep at a very high standard for a prolonged period of time. Give him a few more years of doing both and see how he goes.