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Going in first or seventh, wearing whites or coloureds, Adam Gilchrist has been the symbolic heart of Australia’s steamrolling agenda and the most exhilarating cricketer of the modern age. He is simultaneously a cheerful throwback to more innocent times, a flap-eared country boy who has walked when given not out in a World Cup semi-final, and swatted his second ball for six while sitting on a Test pair.

“Just hit the ball”, is how he once described his philosophy on batting, and he seldom strays from it. Employing a high-on-the-handle grip, he pokes good balls into gaps and throttles most others, invariably with head straight, wrists soft and balance sublime.

Only at the death does he jettison the textbook, whirling his bat like a hammer-thrower, caring only for the scoreboard and never his average. Still he manages to score at a tempo — 82 per 100 balls in Tests, 96 in one-dayers — that makes Viv Richards and Gilbert Jessop look like stick-in-the-muds.

When he signed a record A$2million sponsorship deal with Puma in 2004, few people questioned his value for money. Indeed it was arguably Gilchrist’s belated Test arrival that turned the present Australian eleven from powerful to overpowering.

In one-dayers, his 172 is the third-highest score by an Australian and his overall number of career dismissals — he is currently at 428 — might take decades to top. A devoted family man, his entry into the 2007 tournament was expected to be delayed while attending the birth of his third child.

Source:The News