February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

LONDON, Feb 1: Adam Gilchrist, who retired from Test cricket this week, revolutionised the role of wicketkeeper-batsman with his uninhibited stroke player at number seven.

In 96 Tests Gilchrist averaged 47.60 with an astonishing strike rate of 81.95. As an opener in One-day International cricket the rate was 96.90. When he retired after the fourth Test against India he also held the world record for wicket-keeping dismissals with 416 victims.

Among other pioneers are England’s W.G. Grace, his compatriot Bernard Bosanquet, Sir Don Bradman and Shane Warne (both Gilchrist’s countrymen), West Indies’ Clive Lloyd, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya.

William Gilbert Grace, or W.G Grace. Born in July 1848 at Downend, Bristol, Grace’s prodigious scoring with around 54,000 runs in 44 seasons, including 1,000 runs in May, 1895, when he was in his 47th year, effectively shaped the modern game.

A literally massive presence, Grace’s feats captured the imagination of Victorian England to such an extent that cricket became the national summer game of his native land and then throughout the British Empire. He passed away in 1915.

Bernard Bosanquet from Middlesex. Although he played only seven Tests, Bosanquet, born in October 1877, invented the googly, an off-break bowled with a leg-break action, which remains a primary weapon for wrist spinners. The player died in 1936.

The list remains very incomplete without the name of Sir Don Bradman. Indisputably the best batsman who has ever lived, the 1908-born Bradman averaged 99.94 in 52 Tests with twelve double centuries and two phenomenal triple-century knocks.

The New South Wales sensation tilted the balance of power so much in Australia’s favour that England, under Douglas Jardine, used the infamous bodyline tactics of bowling at the batsmen’s bodies in the 1932-33 Ashes series. Bradman, who died in 2001, still averaged 56 in a losing cause and bodyline was outlawed.

Clive Lloyd’s contribution to the West Indies cricket is unparalleled.

The West Indies went undefeated in a series between 1980 and 1995 after Lloyd decided at the start of their reign that the traditional balanced attack was a waste of time.

Instead of selecting spin bowlers he did not consider of sufficient quality, Lloyd rotated four world-class fast bowlers with high rate of success.

Imran Khan remains a benchmark even almost 16 years after his retirement form international cricket following Pakistan’s triumph in the 1992 World Cup.

Imran, a genuine all-rounder and captain, refined reverse swing, developed on Pakistan’s abrasive pitches where the shine soon leaves the ball, into a potent weapon in Test cricket during the 1980s.

Similar initiative was shown by off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, Imran’s compatriot, in the following decade, when he became the first bowler to master the ‘doosra’, a leg-spin delivery bowled with an off-spinner’s action.

Sanath Jayasuriya. Without even bothering to get his eye in, left-handed opener Jayasuriya savaged opposition bowling from the first ball to take his country to the 1996 World Cup title.

His success prompted Sri Lanka’s rivals to adopt a similar approach to the one-day game and now all teams open the batting in limited-overs cricket with at least one attacking batsman.

Shane Warne gave a new dimension to leg-spin bowling in the early 1990s and took it to new heights throughout the decade and beyond.

In an era when express bowling threatened to make spinners redundant, Warne became the biggest personality in the game.

By the time he retired in 2007 with a then-world record 708 Test wickets he was also acknowledged as the finest wrist-spinner who had ever taken the field.

After an unusually late entry into Test cricket at the age of 28, Gilchrist proved a sensation with his fearless counter-attacking.

His pyrotechnics down the order were instrumental in Australia’s lifting the tempo of run-scoring in test cricket to an unprecedented level and he became the only player to hit 100 sixes in Tests.

In his last major ODI innings he slammed 149 off 104 balls to propel Australia to victory in the 2007 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Bridgetown last year. At his peak he was also an excellent wicket-keeper whose glovework to Warne was exemplary.—Reuters