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Gilchrist thrilled

Special Correspondent

Adelaide: That the wicket-keeping community is the most marginalised in the cricket world couldn’t have been plainer than on Friday, with the attention given to Adam Gilchrist, who passed Mark Boucher’s mark for the most Test dismissals.

Gilchrist has had three difficult Test matches — enough one would think for his teammates to toast him on the field for the feat, as they have Shane Warne when the leg-spinner has become the world’s highest wicket-taker.

Lonely art

Perhaps it was the situation of the match, perhaps the commendation will come in private, but it was evident why wicket-keeping is such a lonely, obsessive — and supremely rewarding — art.

“I’m thrilled to be the world record-holder,” said Gilchrist after the second day of the fourth Test. “It’s a really nice, satisfying achievement. I might have got there a bit quicker if I’d gloved a couple a bit more cleanly. I’ll have to thank my bowlers — Warne, McGrath, Gillespie, Lee — they have been so much fun to keep wickets to.”

The wicketkeeper sets the tone for the fielding side, and Gilchrist admitted it was his fault that Australia has caught so poorly in the Test series.

Main culprit

“I’m probably the main culprit,” he said. “In Sydney I dropped about three or four and another one here. That was disappointing. We haven’t done anything different with the fielding. We’ve trained just as hard. Sometimes they stick, sometimes they don’t, and it’s not something that’s a great concern.”

Did he think he was making errors in technique? “In a nutshell, it comes down to concentration,” said Gilchrist.

“Are you switched on for every ball? Very rarely, if ever, can I remember dropping a catch or missing a stumping, and when asking myself whether I was concentrating 100 per cent, saying yes. Normally I’ve had something on my mind and wandered off. You just get exposed.”

Motivating factor

Gilchrist said the critics who felt he shouldn’t keep his place inspired him to improve his glovework.

“With my keeping I’ve always had to maintain the highest standards and if I didn’t people pounce on it very quickly,” he said. “I’m not sure if that’s because of my batting, people suggesting I’m just a batsman and a backstop. I’ve used that as incentive to help motivate me and feel like I’ve maintained a high standard.”

Retirement

At 36, the left-hander has been asked about his retirement several times in the last few months, and Gilchrist said he wasn’t thinking about it.

“It’ll be my decision,” he said. “At the end of the day you might try not to listen to comments and someone will text you and say: ‘don’t listen to them’.

Then you listen and get angry. At the end of the day it’s got to come from within. When it’s time you will know. And I’ll let the public and the press know then.”

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