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Gilly retires
By Will 9 months ago, Comments
I’ve been out of the loop the past few days, spending time at the horrific hospital in Plymouth. In fact, it wasn’t horrific - but neither was it the best place in which to spend a few days away from London.
Nee mind. Back in cricket world, and I’ve literally only just read about it a few moments ago, Adam Gilchrist has retired which took me (and presumably most others) completely by surprise. A monumental career, and the last - follow Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne - of a trio that have lifted Australia’s fortunes into the stratosphere in the past decade.
My hatred of him began early when I watched his sickening 152 at Edgbaston in the 2001 Ashes. On 99, Caddick tried to bounce him. Gilchrist stepped to leg slightly, lifted his bat ramrod straight in the air, like a periscope, and spooned the ball over the wicketkeeper for four to bring him his hundred. But my disgust that Australia should have found such a world-beater didn’t fully take off until I hear him roar “yeeeeah!” while going to his hundred.
It spoke volumes of the near-arrogance with which Australia played their cricket; the confidence, allied with supreme natural ability, which littered their XI in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gilchrist was outrageous, skilful and a total bastard.
I say bastard in the most complimentary manner, but was he really? Unlike McGrath and even Warne, I warmed to Gilchrist quite quickly. Of all the Australians in that side, he more than most seemed to have a conscience and, annoyingly, played the game in the right spirit. How could someone who batted in such a carefree, ebullient, manic manner also be a “walker”? The two concepts - confidence and honesty - weren’t, to the observer, compatible yet Gilchrist made it so. I suppose to aspiring Australians, he must have been nothing short of a hero, and even to opposing fans he remained unmissable entertainment. Perhaps that is the yardstick by which we should judge him: he was pure entertainment.
What were your favourite Gilchrist moments? And does his retirement leave Australia in a pickle?
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