The humble beginnings of Gilchrist's batting joy

Adam Gilchrist has provided an insight into the pure, uninhibited joy of belting the ball that drove him to be one of the defining characters of Australian cricket’s most prosperous era and one of the most recent inductees into the game’s Hall of Fame.

While conceding that batting was the subsidiary, albeit important, component of his all-round game Gilchrist revealed it was the licence given to him by his first coach at their regular training sessions that shaped his approach to the game.

An approach that Rod Marsh, the former Australian ‘keeper who was Gilchrist’s boyhood hero, noted when inducting Gilchrist into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening had effectively changed the way the game is now played.

Adam Gilchrist entered the Australia Cricket Hall of Fame in Sydney

Gilchrist, who represented his country almost 400 times across Test, ODI and T20 formats, believes that evolution began in the 1970s when tailenders were compelled to develop at least minimal batting skills.

It then took on an extra dimension around the 1996 World Cup when eventual champions Sri Lanka employed diminutive ‘keeper Rumesh Kaluwitharana as an explosive opener as a blueprint that other nations soon followed.

Re-live Gilchrist's first ODI ton for Australia

But it was Stan Gilchrist, the record-breaking Australian ‘keeper-batsman’s father who was also his coach in his developing years on the New South Wales north coast, who encouraged his son to enjoy the thrill of hitting the ball a long way as well as developing the requisite defensive skills.

That was the natural game Gilchrist took with him to the highest level and employed to spectacular effect.

“He always used to encourage me, particularly at the end of (practice) sessions to just hit the ball,” Gilchrist said of his father this week when reflecting on his induction into the company of the game’s other greats.

“I would do some technique work but he always threw an extra 20 at the end and he’d say ‘just slog it now, just go for it’

“And that’s what it’s about.

“The most fun part of batting is seeing a ball, lining it up, trying to hit it in the middle and for one split second you and only you in the whole world know that you’ve got it.

“That’s a really enjoyable feeling.”

While the now 43-year-old father of four was one of cricket’s premier drawcards during his 20-year career that began as a specialist middle-order batsman for the Blues and ended with him taking his one and only wicket for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, it was his team’s successes he cherishes above all.

It wasn't just with his bat that Gilchrist excelled in the IPL

In particular, the three World Cup victories of which he was an integral part in 1999, 2003 and 2007, and the record-setting streak of 16 consecutive Test victories that the Australians strung together during the golden age led by coach John Buchanan and captains Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

“They are the two highlights without doubt, those group successes are the ones that you remember most,” Gilchrist said.

“There was the huge thrill of being able to play one of (my) best games on the world’s biggest stage on the right day, the World Cup of ’07, that’s a great personal highlight.

“But really those team successes and the celebrations after, they’re the things we talk about when we catch up.”

Adam Gilchrist led from the front against Sri Lanka at the '07 World Cup

Any talk of Gilchrist’s imprint on cricket worldwide invariably focuses on his game-changing batting exploits.

The mesmeric 149 in the 2007 World Cup final that he mentioned, the fastest Test century by an Australian in front of his adoring Perth fans in the 2006-07 Ashes whitewash, and what was then the fastest double-century by a Test batsman against South Africa in Johannesburg five years earlier.

Adam Gilchrist sealed his place in history against England in Perth

But the man himself derives just as much if not more satisfaction from his wicketkeeping records, where he was the holder of the benchmark for most dismissals in Test and – until yesterday when he was overtaken by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara – one-day internationals.

Asked if he would prefer to live on in people’s memories as a batsman or as a wicketkeeper, Gilchrist was typically humble.

“Just to be remembered would be good,” he laughed

“Everyone has their own opinion and will make judgements based on the various facets of the game that I tried to execute.

“But being a ‘keeper – there’s only one in each team so that was my primary job.

“The batting was a bonus, not to say that I didn’t take it seriously and understood there was an expectation on myself and from others to contribute with the bat.

“But ‘keeping was my focus and my training breakdown was probably 80 per cent keeping and 20 per cent batting.

“There’s no doubt the batting came a little bit more naturally so I had to work harder at the ‘keeping.”

As for the future, the involvement of his sons Harry (who shares his dad’s fondness for wicketkeeping) and Archie (showing promise as a wrist spinner) ensures he will be a presence at the game at the grassroots level for now, perhaps at higher levels in the future.

And even though his role as a commentator alongside former teammates Ponting, Mark Waugh and Damien Fleming during the past two KFC Big Bash Leagues has won him even more fans, he is resisting the overtures from here and abroad (most notably India) to do more television work.

Gilchrist gave fans a rare insight during the Lord's Bicentenary match

Certainly, you won’t see him at training in team apparel any time soon as he harbours no aspiration to follow the likes of his good friends Darren Lehmann and Justin Langer into the coaching caper.

“It (cricket) will always be close to my heart, and with a family and young boys who are very, very keen on the game I’m going to be involved in their development and trying to help them out and their teammates,” Gilchrist said.

“So you end up on cricket committees of junior clubs which is wonderful because it’s those committees that give everyone the opportunity to progress up the ranks.

“But I don’t see myself ever getting into full-time, top-level coaching.

“I didn’t think enough about the game when I was playing let alone trying to coach and looking at other players and trying to help them through.

“I’ll always be in and around the game.

“It’s a game I was fortunate to have a career in, and you get to the end of that career and you still love it.

“You don’t leave with any bitterness and to be able to go anywhere in the world and pick up the phone and ring someone who was an opponent when you were playing and say ‘I’m in town, do you want to catch up’ that’s one of life’s great thrills now.

“That means it’s been kind to me and I’ll always be in and around the game to try and put a little bit back in there.”