By Alex Brown
Adam Gilchrist's great rival, South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, believes the Australian glovesman has forever changed the face of cricket, and will leave a void the world champions might never fill.
On Friday, Gilchrist surpassed Boucher to claim the world record for Test dismissals by a wicketkeeper (414), although the South African will now presumably overhaul his Australian contemporary within the year.
Nonetheless, Boucher praised Gilchrist for an extraordinary international career that has included 96 Test, 277 one-day internationals and countless broken records and milestones.
"The night before I had sent him a text message after he went past me on the (Test dismissals) list, saying, 'congratulations on an incredible career, long may it continue." Boucher told The Sun-Herald from Cape Town last night. "I really thought he could go on for another three or four years, but I guess with his family commitments he decided the right time to go was now.
"There have probably been better wicketkeepers in the game, but he revolutionised the game in terms of being a wicketkeeper-batsman. Gilly is streets ahead of the rest in that regard. Absolutely, he is the guy who set the tone for everyone else in the game, and he has changed it forever. Before he came into the game, it was OK for a keeper to be averageing between 20 and 25 if he was doing a good job with the gloves. But Gilly came in and set new standards for all of us to follow. Like Jonty Rhodes changes the face of fielding, Gilly changed the role of keeper-batsmen.
"Everyone would like to be like Adam Gilchrist, and turn games around by smashing the ball to all parts of the ground. There will be a lot of juniors all over the world coming into the game trying to emulate the way he has played, and that can only be a good thing."
Without Gilchrist in their ranks, Boucher believes the Australians will likely fall back to the field.
"Yes, I must admit I do think that," he said. "Australia obviously has some really good players coming through, but you don't lose guys like Gilly - and Warne and McGrath for that matter - and just pick up where you left off. It's a major challenging the Australians are now facing. The players coming through might be very good, but without that experience it's going to be very difficult for them."
South African coach Mickey Arthur, though, disagreed with the assertions of his wicketkeeper, arguing that Australia would prove the dominant force in world cricket for some time yet.
"Australia will always be right up there," Arthur said. "They will always set the pace in international cricket. I have been watching the series between Australia and India very closely, and it's been interesting for me to see the extra work guys like (Brett) Lee have had to shoulder so far.
"Once, Warne could do a job for you at one end, but now they have to compensate for that with guys like Lee bowling a lot more overs. There was also a bit of inexperience shown when they lost Hayden in Perth.
"There might be some slight chinks developing, and I hope we can take advantage of that over time. But I still see Australia being the leaders for quite some time."